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Building A Bridge Of ReasonWed, 18 Apr 2018 21:43:11 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.5Mormon General Conference: How Was Your Easter?http://reachouttrust.org/mormon-conference-easter-new-prophet/
http://reachouttrust.org/mormon-conference-easter-new-prophet/#respondMon, 16 Apr 2018 15:28:42 +0000http://reachouttrust.org/?p=3988The weekend of March 30-April 1 2018 was an important one for Christians. It was Easter weekend and the atoning suffering, death, and resurrection of the Son of God was marked around the globe in the different traditions of the Christian Church. Good Friday is so called because of the medieval understanding of the word […]

The weekend of March 30-April 1 2018 was an important one for Christians. It was Easter weekend and the atoning suffering, death, and resurrection of the Son of God was marked around the globe in the different traditions of the Christian Church.

Good Friday is so called because of the medieval understanding of the word ‘good’ as meaning ‘holy, pious,’ with the sense of a day or season regarded as holy, or set apart, by the church. Easter Saturday marks the day the body lay in the tomb, traditionally a time when all signs of celebration are set aside, the bright colours that traditionally mark the church year in many churches are muted for the remembrance of the Lord of Life.

In the Roman Catholic Church Good Friday is regarded as a day of fasting that involves the liturgy of the word, the veneration of the cross, and communion. In the United Kingdom it has traditionally been a day when businesses have closed, horse racing has stopped, sports programmes put on hold, though these observations have fallen by the way in recent years.

In the Byzantine Church tradition this period of reflection on the cross begins on Thursday night with twelve readings from the gospels that take us from Jesus’ last sermon to his agony in the garden in the ‘farewell discourse’ of John 13:31-18:1.Then readings from all four gospels take us to the time a guard was set on the tomb.

You can read here about the different traditions of the Christian church practised and observed over this weekend, a tradition of remembering and passing on, ‘the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders he has done.’ (Ps.78: 4, passim)

Easter Sunday then becomes a day of great celebration, as we move with those first Christians from despair to marvellous triumph and hope. Many around the world hold dawn vigils and, as the sun rises, call and answer, ‘Hallelujah! He is risen!’‘He is risen indeed!’ Celebration follows as the church remembers the great good news that broke on the world that first Easter Sunday morning. An empty tomb, a risen Lord, eternal life for all who put their trust in him.

How was your Easter?

Meanwhile, Back in Utah

The Mormon Church held it’s annual General Conference over that weekend, a strikingly unusual scheduling. Following the death of 90-year-old Thomas S Monson on 2 January 2018 the church has a new prophet in 93-year-old Russell M Nelson. He is only the second Mormon president, after Monson, to have been born after the 1st World War, Monson having been born August 1927 and Nelson September 1924. Before Monson the man at the helm was Gordon B Hinckley, born 1910.

Although this process, rather pretentiously known as a ‘solemn assembly,’ has the appearance of a consultation with congregations around the world, as Richard Ostling, in his Get Religion article points out:

‘There was no choice of other names and conference attendees always affirm a new president without dissent. Moreover, Nelson’s colleagues had already installed him weeks beforehand. Beyond that, Nelson’s ascent was predestined years beforehand because the new LDS president is automatically the man with the earliest appointment to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.’

If you think you were witnessing a form of Congregationalism think again.

When we look at previous Mormon presidents it is remarkable that a church founded in 1830 by a disreputable 24-year-old gold digger from up-state New York should be led by men of such great age. Joseph Smith’s immediate successor (in the Salt Lake City Church at least), Brigham Young, was a vigorous 42-year-old when he took up the reins of leadership, becoming ‘the American Moses,’ leading the saints across the plains to the Salt Lake Valley. Any number of candidates for the role sprung up and many splinter groups issued from the ensuing confusion but Brigham got the job. It was in the battle for leadership following Joseph’s death that the rules of succession were set.

While the Re-organised Church, now the Community of Christ, understood succession as going to Joseph’s immediate blood heir, Joseph Smith III, Brigham Young insisted that leadership fell to the relatively newly formed Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, of which he was president. Young’s actions later, in 1875, came to define the great age of the president of the church when he decreed the rule of seniority: the senior member was to be the person with the longest uninterrupted service in the Quorum.

As Gordon B Hinckley once quipped, you become president by outliving everyone else. A helpful explanation of how the church chooses it’s next president appeared in the Deseret News shortly after Monson’s death.

After Brigham’s death in 1877, at the age of 77, his successors routinely became hoary, anachronistic characters whose leadership styles were increasingly out of touch with the needs of the times. Change has, inevitably, come, but kicking and screaming rather than quietly and confidently embraced as the top leadership of the church cling to the customs and mores of bygone days. A list of their names and ages on becoming president can be found here.

A church led by men who began to learn their leadership skills and form their world-view around the time Edward VIII abdicated the English throne, the Depression was lingering on it’s death bed, the BBC made it’s first public broadcasts, and one Devon housewife apparently could feed her family of nine for £1.

Old school conservatism might be expected, then, to mark this Mormon leadership, tradition to shape the procedures of this Easter weekend, as the gathered, regarding themselves as the ‘only true Christian Church in this last dispensation,’ hang on the words of a living prophet. So, what does a 93-year-old retired heart surgeon have to say to the one true church and the world on this solemnly significant Christian occasion?

A Prophet Speaks

Russell M Nelson

Mormonism’s new prophet, Russell M Nelson, God’s mouthpiece on earth, spoke five times during the weekend. He first spoke a few opening remarks during the Saturday evening general priesthood session and announced important changes to the way elders’ and high priests’ quorums would operate: ‘In each ward, the high priests and the elders will now be combined into one elders quorum.’

Elder D. Todd Christofferson and Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles then proceeded to explain in more detail the reasons for and significance of these changes. Russell M Nelson closed the priesthood session by sharing his concern about some priesthood holders who don’t exercise their priesthood correctly because they don’t understand what the priesthood is.

He next spoke in the Sunday morning session, in which the new ;prophet made what can only be described as a ‘goes without saying’ reference to the atonement before going on to laud his predecessor, Thomas S Monson, speak at length about his own history in the church and the reality of modern revelation, ending with an insight into his own approach to leadership.

He was clearly laying down markers, leaving listeners in no doubt that he was inspired by God and, if they prayed about it, they would know it too. This is Moroni’s promise, with all it’s mind manipulation (did you pray with a sincere heart?) brought to bear in support of the new prophet. In a 2282 word address he dedicated 290 words (10%) exclusively to the thing that Christians would be celebrating, talking about, preaching about that morning, around the world, the events of that first Easter.

It was in the Sunday afternoon session that he rose again to announce the ‘retiring’ of the long-established Home Teaching programme of the church, replacing it with something called ‘Ministering.’ At the time of writing a sparsely populated (but ‘coming soon’) section of the LDS website is given over to explaining the Ministering programme. Meanwhile, a FAQ section on lds.org can be found here.

This is a man who heads up The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (‘of course we’re Christians, his name is in the name of our church!’); a man who claims to speak for the God of the Bible (‘we believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly’; LDS 8th article of faith); someone entrusted above all else with delivering the Christian message to a dying world and his concern is that you should know:

‘Through personal revelation, you can receive your own witness that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, that Joseph Smith is a prophet, and that this is the Lord’s Church.’

Russell M Nelson closed the conference with a call to arms:

‘I exhort you to study the messages of this conference frequently—even repeatedly—during the next six months. Conscientiously look for ways to incorporate these messages in your family home evenings, your gospel teaching, your conversations with family and friends, and even your discussions with those not of our faith. Many good people will respond to the truths taught in this conference when offered in love. And your desire to obey will be enhanced as you remember and reflect upon what you have felt these past two days.’

So, what are the messages to be taken away from this conference, studied, discussed, incorporated, and obeyed? Let’s look at a sampling.

Saturday morning

M Russell Ballard urged:

The Lord has said:

“Thou shalt give heed unto all his [meaning the President of the Church] words and commandments which he shall give unto you as he receiveth them …; “For his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith.” (D&C 21:4-5)

Brian K Taylor of the Seventy, spoke of the Mormon doctrine that we are all literal offspring of our Heavenly Father:

‘President Boyd K. Packer’s words are plain and precious: You are a child of God. He is the father of your spirit. Spiritually you are of noble birth, the offspring of the King of Heaven. Fix that truth in your mind and hold to it. However many generations in your mortal ancestry, no matter what race or people you represent, the pedigree of your spirit can be written on a single line. You are a child of God!”

He illustrated the nature of that relationship in the lives of two ‘sons of God’ before launching into the story of Joseph Smith and the so-called first vision:

‘As Jesus earnestly sought His Father in Gethsemane, so young Joseph Smith, in 1820, prayerfully sought God in the Sacred Grove. After reading “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God,” Joseph retired to pray.’

I’ll just leave that there for you to consider the appropriateness, or otherwise, of such an illustration and comparison.

Larry J. Echo Hawk Of the Seventy, anticipating the empty tomb, preached a moving personal message on forgiveness, nevertheless reminding saints there is so much more to do:

‘Through the miracle of the sacred Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can also receive the gift of forgiveness of our sins and misdeeds, if we accept the opportunity and responsibility of repentance. And by receiving necessary ordinances, keeping covenants, and obeying commandments, we can gain eternal life and exaltation.’

Mormonism is rolled out with it’s ‘necessary ordinances, keeping covenants, obeying commandments’ as a prerequisite for gaining what Jesus’ sacrifice at Easter makes freely available to all who believe (John 3:16)

Gary E Stevenson spoke of the process of setting apart a new prophet, lauding the new man and saying:

‘Brothers and sisters, we can rejoice—even shout, “Hosanna!”—that the Lord’s mouthpiece, a prophet of God, is in place and that the Lord is pleased that His work is being done in the way that He has divinely prescribed.’

‘Hosanna’ this Easter weekend for…?

Lynn G Robbins preached a message of try until you succeed this Easter weekend, Jesus dying to give us ‘chances’ to successfully make it to heaven:

‘No one is more on our side than the Savior. He allows us to take and keep retaking His exams…Knowing that the strait and narrow path would be strewn with trials and that failures would be a daily occurrence for us, the Savior paid an infinite price to give us as many chances as it would take to successfully pass our mortal probation.’

Neil L Anderson ended his panegyric of the new man with:

‘In a future day, looking back on our mortality, we will rejoice that we walked the earth at the time of a living prophet. At that day, I pray that we will be able to say: We listened to him. We believed him. We studied his words with patience and faith. We prayed for him. We stood by him. We were humble enough to follow him. We loved him.’

And so it continues, through anecdotes of ‘sweet sisters,’ and ‘faithful brethren,’ General Authorities quoting other General Authorities, Joseph Smith, Book of Mormon characters. We hear of the importance of, endurance, character, young people in the church, covenant keeping, the power of the priesthood, saving ordinances, family history and temple work, personal revelation (pops up a lot), relief work, discipleship, and not forgetting, ‘follow the prophet.’

These are, many though not all of them, good and commendable in themselves, but when Jesus and the season is mentioned they seem little more than a jumping off point for another anecdote, one more panegyric about the new prophet, or fond reminiscence of the old, while the Christian world kneels dumbfounded, awed, humbled, and grateful at the foot of the cross and the site of an empty tomb.

There will, of course, be those who will insist I am being petty and picking my evidence carefully, insist there was ample Easter in this conference. If you want to know what a prophetic Easter sermon is like follow this link and hear the Easter story spoken into the lives of those privileged to hear it. Hear a challenge from the very foot of the cross, from the entrance to an empty tomb, and judge for yourself the difference.

If you’re still not seeing it let me point out it is often in small ways that these things become shockingly apparent. The conversations of ordinary Mormons are often the most reliable witness to how Mormons really see these things. Some years ago a Mormon I knew online was sent a CD of Christian worship music by an Evangelical friend. When he was asked what he thought of it he replied he had really enjoyed it, as had his family, his little girl even dancing to the music. ‘One thing struck me though.’ he said. ‘You do make a lot of Jesus.’

Behold the Man!

Indeed, behold Dieter Uchtdorf, Mormon apostle, former member of the first presidency, now back in the ranks of the second quorum of the church. At almost the last minute he comes, during that Sunday afternoon session, to save the Mormon Church from itself and preach about Easter. Of course, he gets it wrong and we’ll come to that, but we can see perhaps why he is no longer a comfortable fit in the first presidency of the church

The impression I get from the new man is that he wants to stamp his authority on the church and bring it back to what is important; Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, revelation, and ‘follow the prophet.’ Uchtdorf, conversely, almost sounds orthodox, in tone and delivery, if not in content. Perhaps it’s his European heritage. But behold Dieter Uchtdorf:

‘Yes, there are many events throughout history that have profoundly affected the destiny of nations and peoples. But combine them all, and they cannot begin to compare to the importance of what happened on that first Easter morning.’

Preach it brother!

‘My beloved brothers and sisters, I testify that the most important day in the history of mankind was the day when Jesus Christ, the living Son of God, won the victory over death and sin for all of God’s children. And the most important day in your life and mine is the day when we learn to “behold the man”; when we see Him for who He truly is; when we partake with all our heart and mind of His atoning power; when with renewed enthusiasm and strength, we commit to follow Him.’

Preach it brother, preach it!

‘To find the most important day in history, we must go back to that evening almost 2,000 years ago in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus Christ knelt in intense prayer and offered Himself as a ransom for our sins. It was during this great and infinite sacrifice of unparalleled suffering in both body and spirit that Jesus Christ, even God, bled at every pore. Out of perfect love, He gave all that we might receive all. His supernal sacrifice, difficult to comprehend, to be felt only with all our heart and mind, reminds us of the universal debt of gratitude we owe Christ for His divine gift.

‘Later that night, Jesus was brought before religious and political authorities who mocked Him, beat Him, and sentenced Him to a shameful death. He hung in agony upon the cross until, finally, “it [was] finished.” His lifeless body was laid in a borrowed tomb. And then, on the morning of the third day, Jesus Christ, the Son of Almighty God, emerged from the tomb as a glorious, resurrected being of splendor, light, and majesty.’

Yes, Gethsemane. ‘It was during this great and infinite sacrifice of unparalleled suffering in both body and spirit that Jesus Christ, even God, bled at every pore.’

Incredible as it may sound, it has long been believed and taught in the Mormon Church that Jesus atoned in Gethsemane and simply died on the cross.

Mormon Church president Joseph Fielding Smith said:

‘We get into the habit of thinking, I suppose, that his great suffering was when he was nailed to the cross by his hands and his feet and was left there to suffer until he died. As excruciating as that was, that was not the greatest suffering he had to undergo…so great was his suffering before he ever went to the cross…blood oozed from the pores of his body.’ (D&C Institute Student Manual, 1981, p.38)

Mormon apostle Bruce R. McConkie wrote:

“As He came out of the Garden, delivering himself voluntarily into the hands of wicked men, the victory had been won. There remained yet the shame and the pain of his arrest, his trials, and his cross. But all these were overshadowed by the agonies and sufferings in Gethsemane. It was on the cross that he ‘suffered death in the flesh’, even as many have suffered agonising deaths, but it was in Gethsemane that ‘he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come to him.’” (The Mortal Messiah, McConkie, pp 127-28)

Mormon apostle Jeffery R Holland declared,

‘It was here in the Garden of Gethsemane. on that last night of mortality, that Jesus left His Apostles and descended alone into the depth of agony that would be his atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world.’ (Ensign, April 2002, p.14)

‘Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to Greeks, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.’ (1 Cor.1:22-24)

There is something about the cross of Christ that causes many to despise it’s plain and brutal message, to recoil from it’s urgent call to humbly kneel and repent. At the cross we are found out and, with Paul, must confess, There is no one righteous, no not [me.]’ (Ro.3:10) Here we face our own hopelessness and cry with Paul, ‘Wretched [sinner] that I am! Who will delver me from this body of death?’ (Ro.8:24) It was Bishop J C Ryle who said:

‘We must give up the vain idea that we can ever make the cross of Christ acceptable by polishing and varnishing and painting and gilding it, and sawing off the corners.’

In the Garden

For the Mormon the cross is simply the unseemly instrument of Jesus’ death. The Garden seems perhaps more civilised, where Jesus is imagined taking on suffering attended by heaven, while on the cross, abandoned, suffering is inflicted, ignominious, brutal, final. Yet Paul preached nothing but the cross, while Jesus declared:

‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.’ (John 3:14)

Our salvation depends on where, as well as to whom, we look for it, not ordinances and covenants, priesthood and temples, but Golgotha.

The whole conference was, more than usual, strikingly self-congratulatory, perhaps more noticeably so because it was an Easter weekend and Christians know where our minds need to be over those three days.

In his remarks at the start of this conference, M Russell Ballard said:

‘We should remember that it is [Jesus’] name that appears on our places of worship; we are baptized in His name; and we are confirmed, ordained, endowed, and sealed in marriage in His name. We partake of the sacrament and promise to take upon ourselves His name—and become true Christians. Finally, we are asked in the sacrament prayer to “always remember him.” ‘

Typically, it is necessary to wave Mormonism’s Christian credentials because so much of the Mormon faith fails doctrinally to bring Christian truth. They are left to present the flimsiest evidence, insisting they use his name of all things. They did use his name over this weekend, yet plenty of people in this world use his name, but I am reminded of Jesus’ own words:

‘Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘i never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” (Mt.7:21-23)

]]>http://reachouttrust.org/mormon-conference-easter-new-prophet/feed/0Mormon Revelation: The Mormon God Doesn’t Thunder Any Morehttp://reachouttrust.org/mormon-revelation-mormon-god-thunder/
http://reachouttrust.org/mormon-revelation-mormon-god-thunder/#respondThu, 22 Feb 2018 14:20:31 +0000http://reachouttrust.org/?p=3963The Mormon God doesn’t thunder any more. There was a time when his revelations through Mormon prophets were designed to reverberate across the world. During a special conference of the church at Hiram, Ohio, November 1, 1831, God gave his ‘preface’ to the newly compiled prophecies, originally published in 1833 as The Book of Commandments. […]

The Mormon God doesn’t thunder any more. There was a time when his revelations through Mormon prophets were designed to reverberate across the world. During a special conference of the church at Hiram, Ohio, November 1, 1831, God gave his ‘preface’ to the newly compiled prophecies, originally published in 1833 as The Book of Commandments. An enlarged edition was published in 1835 under its current title of Doctrine and Covenants. The preface begins:

‘Hearken, O ye people of my church, saith the voice of him who dwells on high, and whose eyes are upon all men; yea, verily, I say: Hearken ye people from afar; and ye that are upon the islands of the sea, listen together.’ (D&C 1:1) before declaring ‘a voice of warning shall be unto all people, by the mouths of my disciples, whom I have chosen in these last days.’ and boldly announcing, ‘Wherefore, I the Lord, knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth, called upon my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and spake unto him from heaven, and gave him commandments.’

At a conference of the church at Fayette, New York, January 2, 1831, a ‘revelation’ through Joseph Smith began:

‘Thus saith the Lord your God, even Jesus Christ, the Great I AM, Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the same which looked upon the wide expanse of eternity, and all the seraphic hosts of heaven, before the world was made; the same which knoweth all things, for all things are present before mine eyes…’ (D&C 38:1-2) before promising, ‘The Saints are to be given power from on high and to go forth among all nations.’

Promises of power, warnings of calamity, and a man for the moment in Joseph Smith.

Joseph and Beginnings

The Mormon God once seemed anxious to answer Joseph Smith’s every question on just about any issue, and with celestial authority, from the profoundly eternal to the ridiculously mundane. Section 89 sees Joseph Smith asking God’s advice concerning his wife, Emma’s complaint about the brethren chewing and spitting tobacco:

‘Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation…’ (D&C 89)

Doctrine and Covenants 91 is six verses long:

‘Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you concerning the Apocrypha…’ it begins, before going on to say some of the Apocrypha is good and useful, some of it not, which is not so much a revelation as pretty much the common understanding of the Apocrypha.

Doctrine and Covenants 132, on the other hand, is the basis for Mormon cosmology, speaking of the ‘Celestial family,’ telling how men become gods, and the law regarding plural marriage:

‘Verily, this saith the Lord…prepare thy heart to receive and obey the instructions which I am about to give unto you; for all this who have this law revealed unto them must obey the same. For behold, I reveal unto you a new and everlasting covenant; and if ye abide not that covenant, then are ye damned; for no one can reject this covenant and be permitted to enter into my glory.’ (vv 1-4)

Of course, having a word from the Lord, and spoken with such final authority, is useful as your community grows, your ambitions grow with it, and individuals question your judgement. This is no better illustrated than in seeing how Joseph Smith dealt with the ‘murmurings’ of his long-suffering wife.

In July, 1830, barely 3 months after the establishment of the church, Emma was told:

‘Hearken unto the voice of the Lord your God, while I speak unto you, Emma Smith, my daughter…a revelation I give unto you concerning my will; and if thou art faithful and walk in the paths of virtue before me, I will preserve thy life, and thou shalt receive an inheritance in Zion…murmur not’ before the Lord goes on to give Emma the role of a comforter to her husband, assuring her that Joseph’s enterprise would not leave her desolate, telling her not to worry about ‘the things of this world.’

Clearly, Emma’s concerns were very much about the things of this world. I imagine the conversations around the dinner table about where the next meal was coming from and what was in prospect for a young woman hitching her wagon to the life of an itinerant prophet of the Lord.

In July, 1843, in anticipation of Emma’s reaction to the revelation on plural marriage, Doctrine and Covenants 132 warns:

‘And let mine handmaid, Emma Smith, receive all those that have been given unto my servant Joseph, and who are virtuous and pure before me…For I am the Lord thy God, and ye shall obey my voice; and I give unto my servant Joseph that he shall be made ruler over many things…And I command mine handmaid, Emma Smith, to abide and cleave unto my servant Joseph and to none else. But if she will not abide this commandment she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord; for I am the Lord thy God, and I will destroy her if she abide not my law.’ (vv 52-54)

Well, that’s Emma put in her place.

Brigham and Beyond

The only revelation in the Doctrine and Covenants delivered by Joseph’s successor, Brigham Young, still spoke of, ‘The Word and Will of the Lord concerning the Camp of Israel in their journeying to the West…’ (D&C 136) This is when Brigham Young’s reputation as the ‘American Moses’ was born, as he led the Mormons in their trek West to the Great Salt Lake Valley. Strangely, during a period of great upheaval and terrible sacrifice for the saints, God appears to have been silent.

Only two revelations more were added to the sections of this book of revelations. Section 137 reports a vision given to Joseph Smith in January 1836, of the Celestial Kingdom, section 138 a vision given to Joseph F Smith, in October 1918. Both were canonised in a General Conference of the church as additions to the Pearl of Great Price. They became sections in the Doctrine and Covenants in 1981.

Yet, the Mormon God did still thunder, as the Saints established their lives far west of their origins. Examples can be found in the controversial Journal of Discourses. Originally intended as a record of ongoing guidance from the Lord. It was described by its publishers as ‘deservedly [ranking] among the standard works of the Church…’ (JOD, vol.8, Preface) and came with the endorsement and approval of no other than the First Presidency.

In the matter of plural marriage, especially, the church came under enormous pressure to change its policy and practice. But Brigham Young had made clear that, ‘the only men who become Gods, even Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy.’ (Journal of Discourses, vol. 11, p.269) Heber C. Kimball was once told by Joseph Smith that if he did not practice polygamy ‘he would lose his apostleship and be damned.’ (Life of Heber C. Kimball, p.336) Kimball went on to quote Joseph, at various times, saying:

‘The principle of plurality of wives never will be done away with. You might as well deny ‘Mormonism’ and turn away from it, as to oppose the plurality of wives…. I speak of the plurality of wives as one of the most holy principles that God ever revealed to man, and all who exercise an influence against it, unto whom it is taught…will be damned…the curse of God will be upon them.’

The Mormon God would have his way though the whole world stood against the one true church, and revelation would continue to be assertive and dogmatic. Read more here.

Mormon Revelation in Abeyance

By 1890, perhaps because brought to heel by the Federal Government over the issue, the Mormon God sounds eerily muted, Mormon revelation less sure. In October 1890 the Mormon prophet declared an end to the practice of plural marriage. Yet this did not come with a ‘Thus saith the Lord,’ but with:

To Whom it may concern:

…Inasmuch as laws have been enacted by Congress forbidding plural marriages, which laws have been pronounced constitutional by the court of last resort, I hereby declare my intention to submit to those laws, and to use my influence with the members of the Church over which I preside to have them do likewise.

There is nothing in my teachings to the Church or in those of my associates, during the time specified, which can be reasonably construed to inculcate or encourage polygamy; and when any Elder of the Church has used language which appeared to convey any such teaching, he has been promptly reproved. And I now publicly declare that my advice to the Latter-day Saints is to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land.

Wilford Woodruff

President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Known as Official Declaration 1, this was not added to the main body of revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants, not given a section number, but is an appendage to that collection. So, indeed, is the 1978 Official Declaration 2, announcing an end to the race bar to the Mormon priesthood, which announcement is just as dry and muted:

To Whom It May Concern:

On September 30, 1978, at the 148th Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the following was presented by President N. Eldon Tanner, First Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church:

In early June of this year, the First Presidency announced that a revelation had been received by President Spencer W. Kimball extending priesthood and temple blessings to all worthy male members of the Church. President Kimball has asked that I advise the conference that after he had received this revelation, which came to him after extended meditation and prayer in the sacred rooms of the holy temple, he presented it to his counselors, who accepted it and approved it. It was then presented to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who unanimously approved it, and was subsequently presented to all other General Authorities, who likewise approved it unanimously.

The church’s most recent statement, The Family, a Proclamation to the World, known as the Proclamation on the Family and issued in September 1995, hasn’t even found its way into the book. The Proclamation begins:

‘WE, THE FIRST PRESIDENCY and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.’

The first proclamation was a simple announcement that the church was going to comply with the law. This isn’t surprising since they faced bankruptcy because of the penalties suffered for defying that same law.

The second is not a revelation, but an announcement that a revelation was received. We have no idea what God is meant to have said to Spencer W Kimball, only the outworking of it. Neither does the proclamation make mention of the enormous social pressure placed on leaders by those inside and outside the church at the time.

The third proclamation is a simple statement of a faith position such as any Christian denomination or Church might issue. It seems the Mormon God has not spoken, ‘Thus…’ for a very long time.

Mormonism’s Thunder Silenced

The recent death of Mormon prophet Thomas S Monson has seen significant changes at the top. Notably, Deiter Uchdorf, the most popular and progressive member of the first presidency of the church for many years, finds himself back in the quorum of the Twelve. The new prophet, Russell M Nelson, a 93-year-old former heart surgeon, has reaffirmed expectations he will likely uphold the church’s traditional teachings. As though to press home his point, the smooth-talking Uchdorf has been replaced by straight-talking Dallin H Oaks, former jurist.

The church currently faces the challenges of pressure from the LGBT community, a rising movement to include women in the exclusively male priesthood, and other issues. They will need men like this, who are determined to uphold the traditional teachings of the church, if the church isn’t going to roll over and embrace liberal ideals, as has the Reorganised Church, the Community of Christ.

Nevertheless, the Mormon God doesn’t thunder any more, and I anticipate church policy will continue to be channelled through official statements. You can see another one here. And we shouldn’t hold our breath waiting for Mormon Scripture to be added to. Mormon leaders will, no doubt, continue to encourage the saints to ‘keep the faith’ but it will be done through anecdotes, life-building principles, and comforting folk wisdom with which generations of Mormons have become comfortable and familiar.

]]>http://reachouttrust.org/mormon-revelation-mormon-god-thunder/feed/0The Mormon Christmas in the Joseph Dispensationhttp://reachouttrust.org/mormon-christmas-joseph-dispensation/
http://reachouttrust.org/mormon-christmas-joseph-dispensation/#commentsSat, 09 Dec 2017 15:48:57 +0000http://reachouttrust.org/?p=3880A Nativity scene graces the front cover of Mormonism’s December Ensign magazine. Inside there are representations of shepherds and angels, the visit of the Magi, and on the inside back cover the eight-day-old baby Jesus in the arms of faithful Simeon, with proud parents and the prophetess Anna looking on. The quality of the artwork […]

]]>A Nativity scene graces the front cover of Mormonism’s December Ensign magazine. Inside there are representations of shepherds and angels, the visit of the Magi, and on the inside back cover the eight-day-old baby Jesus in the arms of faithful Simeon, with proud parents and the prophetess Anna looking on. The quality of the artwork is striking and we are left in no doubt that this is the Christmas edition. And yet…

Jesus is there among the cliche’s, set safely among the other figures of the Nativity Play, never quite the dangerous character who cleared the temple, cursed a fig tree, faced down the devil, and troubled even the religious leaders of his day. In this Ensign that role is reserved for the prophet of this dispensation, Joseph Smith.

In words from a Paul Simon song, ‘Yes we speak of things that matter, with words that must be said.’ but somehow our attention is drawn elsewhere as by far the longest article, at eight pages, is about Joseph Smith. Jesus’ story is, to coin a phrase, ‘a mile wide and an inch deep.’ The only character whose story is given texture, depth, and theological detail is Joseph Smith’s.

We are used to this, of course: Joseph for Jesus, Emma for Mary, Moroni for Gabriel, the grove for the stable, the Book of Mormon for the Bible, Nauvoo for Jerusalem, the Susquehanna river for the Jordan, Carthage Jail for Calvary. Mormon watchers will be familiar with the way the Mormon Church finds every opportunity to put Joseph front and centre. Mormons will insist this is just so much anti-Mormon nonsense, but they can hardly claim to be unbiased. Others, when they finally see it, puzzle to themselves whether Mormons worship Joseph Smith. Of course Mormons don’t worship Joseph Smith, something else is going on.

Mormon Dispensationalism

To a Christian, God is sublimely “other” than us, whose ways are higher than ours as the heavens are higher than the earth (Isaiah 55:8), different in quality. Indeed, it has been argued that even saying God is different is misleading because it causes us to ask ‘different from what?’ A meaningless question when there is but one God (Is.44:6-8). Isaiah writes:

‘To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?..It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.’ (Is.40:18-23)

To a Mormon God is an exalted man, and differs from us only in that he has grown so much further than us, different only in capacity. While Christians regard Christ as God the Son, the creator-God come in the flesh (Jn.1:1-5), Mormons use similar phrases to describe an entirely different Jesus who is different only in that he has “progressed” further than us. Questions of comparison are perfectly reasonable here. God is a man and Joseph is a man. The only difference between them is that of magnitude and sphere of existence (note that word sphere. We will come across it again).

To a Mormon God has a “great plan of happiness” and Jesus has a role in that plan just as Joseph has a role in that plan. Mormonism isn’t about God but about the plan. Everyone is subject to the plan, even God himself, for it is by keeping to the plan that God became God. The Mormon priesthood is executive power to administer the plan. Each dispensation is administered by those holding this priesthood. Even God is subject to the priesthood, for it is by the priesthood that he had “authority” to create the world. Christ carried out his office by the power of the priesthood and could not be our Saviour without it.

In this scheme – where God and his Christ are only greater than us in development, and priesthood and the plan are greater than all – it seems natural to say in one breath that Joseph is acting under the authority of Christ, and in the next to say that we must have Joseph’s permission to enter heaven. He is at the head of this last dispensation and holds the executive power for it. Because of this they have no problem ascribing to Joseph the role of ultimate judge as they do. Here is Brigham Young:

”If I can pass brother Joseph, I shall stand a good chance for passing Peter, Jesus, the Prophets, Moses, Abraham, and all back to Father Adam, and be pretty sure of receiving his approbation…. If we can pass the sentinel Joseph the Prophet, we shall go into the celestial kingdom, and not a man can injure us. If he says, ‘God bless you, come along here’; if we will live so that Joseph will justify us, and say, ‘Here am I, brethren,’ we shall pass every sentinel.” (Journal of Dis­courses 4:271)

It is not that Mormons worship Joseph so much as they de-deify Jesus, making him one in a pantheon of progressing men. This is a pyramidal structure in which people must pass a series of dispensational key holders to gain heaven; Joseph, Peter, Jesus, the prophets, Moses, Abraham, Adam. In the Mormon temple, prior to 1990, those attending learned the hand grips and passwords “to pass the angels who stand sentinel,” in this god-making enterprise. Although God stands at the head of this structure for us he is not at the head of everything, for his God has progressed beyond him, as has his God before him, in an infinite regress on into infinity. Brigham Young taught:

‘How many Gods there are, I do not know. But there never was a time when there were not Gods and worlds, and when men were not passing through the same ordeals [mortality] that we are now passing through. That course has been from all eternity, and it is and will be to all eternity.’ (Journal of Discourses, 7:333)

No one in Mormonism is ever all in all, the prime mover, the uncreated creator of all things. They know no such being.

Joseph to Justify us

Brigham Young said: ‘if we will live so that Joseph will justify us, and say, ‘Here am I, brethren,’ we shall pass every sentinel.”

How can Joseph’s passport guarantee us entry? What of all the others mentioned in the list? The authority of every dispensation from Adam onward is conferred upon Joseph Smith. This is what Joseph Fielding Smith had to say:

If all things are to be restored, and if the dispensation of the fulness of times is made up of, and is a uniting of, all dispensations, with their keys and powers, since the days of Adam, then those who held the keys of these various dispensations would have to confer them upon the head of one who stands at the head of the last dispensation, and the prophet Joseph Smith is that one. (Doctrines of Salvation, vol.3, p.97, emphasis in original)

In this scheme the idea that men and gods are the same species gives a completely different view of things. It doesn’t seem so audacious for Mormons to make such incredible claims for Joseph, or to have him lauded such in the Christmas edition of their flagship magazine during what is, after all, Joseph’s dispensation. Indeed, this is not incredible at all if God is only a greater man than us, Christ is playing his role, and Joseph playing his, and all progressing to even greater glory. Again, read Brigham Young:

‘No man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the celestial kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph Smith. From the day that the Priesthood was taken from the earth to the winding-up scene of all things, every man and woman must have the certificate of Joseph Smith, junior, as a passport to their entrance into the mansion where God and Christ are – I with you and you with me. I cannot go there without his consent. He (Joseph) holds the keys of that kingdom for the last dispensation – the keys to rule in the spirit-world; and he rules there triumphantly, for he gained full power and a glorious victory over the power of Satan while he was yet in the flesh, and was a martyr to his religion and to the name of Christ, which gives him a most perfect victory in the spirit-world. He reigns there as supreme a being in his sphere, capacity, and calling, as God does in heaven. (Journal of Discourses 7:289, emphasis added)

There is a Mormon hymn lauding Joseph in the LDS Hymnal, number 27.

Praise to the Man!

Praise to the Man who communed with Jehovah!

Jesus anointed that prophet and seer.

Blessed to open the last dispensation,

Kings shall extol him and nations revere.

Praise to his memory he died as a martyr;

Honored and blest be his ever-great name!

Long shall his blood, which was shed by assassins,

Plead unto heaven while the earth lauds his fame.

Great is his glory and endless his priesthood.

Ever and ever the keys he will hold.

Faithful and true, he will enter his kingdom,

Crowned in the midst of the prophets of old.

Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven;

Earth must atone for the blood of that man.

Wake up the world for conflict of justice.

Millions shall know “Brother Joseph” again.

Chorus:

Hail to the prophet, ascended to heaven!

Traitors and tyrants now fight him in vein.

Mingling with Gods, he can plan for his brethren;

Death cannot conquer the hero again.

In Christian hymnology there are hymns that praise God for certain people, hymns that pray to God for people, but nothing that so praises, extols, or reveres a man. I think Mormons, who are so naturalised to this way of thinking, have no idea how shocking it is to people who know only the orthodox, traditional Christianity. If you were to ask a Christian who it was that fitted the main elements of this song,

]]>http://reachouttrust.org/mormon-christmas-joseph-dispensation/feed/2LDS Semi-Annual Conference 2017-Priesthood Sessionhttp://reachouttrust.org/priesthood-session/
http://reachouttrust.org/priesthood-session/#respondThu, 19 Oct 2017 15:02:49 +0000http://reachouttrust.org/?p=3751As I listened to the priesthood session of the LDS 2017 semi-annual conference, I was reminded of how aspirational Mormonism is. I recalled how easy it was to be inspired in the comfort of a meeting house, how natural it is for young priesthood holders to think anything possible. I remembered what it is to […]

]]>Conferencegoers exit after the conclusion of the Priesthood session of the LDS Church’s 187th Semiannual General Conference in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017.

As I listened to the priesthood session of the LDS 2017 semi-annual conference, I was reminded of how aspirational Mormonism is. I recalled how easy it was to be inspired in the comfort of a meeting house, how natural it is for young priesthood holders to think anything possible. I remembered what it is to want it to be true, no matter how fantastic it sounds, to look into the eyes of others for affirmation, knowing they look back seeking the same; restless, striving, I-can-do-this Mormonism.

The Mormon Dream

Fawn Brodie, in her seminal work No Man Knows My History observed:

‘Joseph’s clergy was…entirely composed of laymen; moreover, of practically all the laymen in his church. The result was a pyramidal church structure resting on the broadest possible base and possessing astonishing strength. By giving each man a share in the priesthood Joseph quickened a sense of kinship and oneness in the church.

…What Joseph had created was essentially an evangelical socialism…Nearly every man had a New Testament title – deacon, teacher, priest, elder, “seventy”, or bishop. Each title carried a certain rank, progression from lower to higher being dependent upon a man’s faith, his zeal for the church, and the good will of his superiors in the hierarchy. Each convert had not only the dignity of a title but the duties attending it. He was expected to work strenuously for the church, and he did. His only recompense, and it was ample, was a conviction that he was furthering the work of the Lord in the last days.’ (Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History, 1966, pp.100-01)

If we were to talk about the ‘Mormon Dream’ it would be the ‘American Dream’ writ large across eternity, the goal nothing less than executive priesthood power over your own creation, success defined as godhood. Despite recent and increasingly regular protests from some Mormon women, priesthood in the Mormon Church is confined to men, who are encouraged at every turn to press on to such heights, bringing their prospective goddess wives with them. Mormon women should, perhaps, remember they cannot be exalted without their husband and his priesthood:

‘No woman will get into the celestial kingdom, except her husband receives her, if she is worthy to have a husband; and if not, somebody will receive her as a servant’ (LDS Apostle Lorenzo Snow, (Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, p 291)

Mormon men were, in this session, reminded of this daunting weight of responsibility.

How Mormons Gain Exaltation

Elder Richard J Maynes of the Seventy, in a stirring talk, reminded the room, ‘…perhaps there is no greater compliment we could receive from the Lord than to know He trusts us to be worthy priesthood holders and great husbands and fathers.‘

Integrity of heart his theme, he brought the sober reminder that, ‘…earning the Lord’s trust is a blessing that comes through great effort on our part. Trust is a blessing based on obedience to God’s laws. Earning the Lord’s trust comes as a result of being true to the covenants we have made in the waters of baptism and in the holy temple.’

Elder David F Evans of the Seventy insisted each of us, ‘has a personal responsibility to do what is necessary to obtain and keep a strong testimony…Patient covenant keeping,’ he continues later, ‘brings the blessings of heaven into our lives’

Dieter Uchtdorf, second counsellor in the first presidency, in what seemed at times a rambling presentation, spoke about being light-bearers:

‘Brethren, it is up to us to be in the right place to see the divine light and truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Even when night has fallen and the world seems dark, we can choose to walk in Christ’s light, keep His commandments, and courageously testify of His reality and His greatness. As a bearer of God’s priesthood and as a disciple of Jesus Christ, you are a bearer of light. Keep doing the things that will nurture His divine light.’

Henry B Eyring, first counsellor in the first presidency (You see now Fawn Brodie’s point about title, rank, and progression) reminded all that ‘The Lord Leads His Church,’ before going on to say, ‘The Lord’s leadership of His Church requires great and steady faith from all who serve Him on earth,’ insisting further, ‘For a leader to succeed in the Lord’s work, the people’s trust that he is called of God must override their view of his infirmities and mortal weaknesses.’

Dale G Renlund of the quorum of the twelve apostles reminded priesthood holders, ‘For Heavenly Father’s purposes to be accomplished, Christ’s atoning power needs to be made available to God’s children. The priesthood delivers these opportunities.’

A Mormon isn’t saved in any sense a Christian would understand.

Priesthood holders are to be worthy, earning God’s trust through great effort, strictly obedient to God’s laws, true to their covenants, taking personal responsibility to do what is necessary. It is up to the priesthood holder to choose to keep the commandments, to have great and steady faith, with a duty to deliver Christ’s atoning power to God’s children, and to keep doing…and doing, and doing.

A Mormon isn’t saved in any sense a Christian would understand. What Christians call resurrected, Mormons call ‘saved,’ what Christians call ‘saved,’ Mormons call ‘exalted,’ and it is this exaltation for which they daily strive, never knowing if they have done enough. This is not a saved people aspiring to fully come into the good of all Christ has won for them. This is an aspirational people striving to prove worthy of all God has for the strongest, fittest, most faithful and accomplished of his children.

What I Once Thought Gain…

I am reminded of Paul’s description of his former self in his letter to Philippi, ‘…circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.’ (Phjilippians 3:5-6)

I imagine a Mormon striving to something similar, ‘baptised at eight, born in the covenant, a Mormon of Mormons; in regard to law, an elder; as for zeal, faithfully carrying out church callings; as for legalistic righteousness, worthy of God’s trust, striving, obedient, covenant-keeping, commandment-keeping, temple worthy, having steady faith, doing, doing, and doing.’

But I remember how Paul goes on to say of his zeal and self-righteousness, ‘But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ…I consider them rubbish (Gk. skoo’-bal-on, excrement), that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.’ (Philippians 3:7-9)

What did Paul see that Nicodemus did not? Remember how the faithful Pharisee Nicodemus, ‘came to Jesus at night…’ and recognised Jesus as having been sent by God. ‘In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”‘ Jesus unpacks this teaching but Nicodemus fails to understand, and Jesus’ response is an indictment, ‘You are Israel’s teacher and do you not understand these things?’

This is the passage where Jesus goes on to explain, ‘Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert (Num.21:8-9), so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’ (Jn.3:1-16) This ‘eternal life’ is a quality of life, God’s quality of life, gifted to all who trust in Jesus. What the LDS priesthood-holder strives for, Christ has achieved for us, it is not earned, or merited.

Those Strange ‘Born-Agains’

There is this thing Evangelicals (born-agains) do. With Paul, they insist, ‘No-one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law…For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.’ (Ro.3:20-28) They justify this in light of James’ insistence, ‘Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.’ (Js.2:1-13) James carefully explains that this is because if you sin you become a law breaker, and its what you have become that marks you unworthy, not how hard you have, or haven’t tried. Its a neat argument, and no getting away from it.

No-one is capable of keeping the whole law and ‘your best’ doesn’t cut it.

There must, therefore, be some other way of getting right with God.

Paul insists we are ‘justified by faith,’ and though he was a brilliant law-keeper, yet it was all worthless.

Jesus said people gain eternal life by believing in him.

Yet, anyone who pays attention will know the New Testament is full of imperatives to do good works. Peter urges good works, ‘that [men] may see your good deeds and glorify God…’ (1 Peter 2:12)

Hebrews encourages, ‘Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.‘ (Heb.10:24)

Jesus taught, ‘Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.’ (Mt.5:16)

Paul writes we should ‘do good, be rich in good works, be generous and ready to share…’ (1 Tim.6:18)

And, of course, James insists, ‘Faith without works is dead.’ (James 2:17)

Then we see those strange ‘saved-by-grace-not-works’ Christians faithfully gathering for worship, giving sacrificially, going the extra mile, being good neighbours, loving their enemies, fasting and praying, striving to be salt and light in the world, and storing up treasure in heaven. What is going on, if they ‘don’t believe in works?’

Faith Without Works Is Dead!

In prayer Christians do the work of God

Christians, it seems, believe in obedience, making and keeping covenants, growing in faith, taking responsibility, and sharing the good news of Jesus. They know James’ timely reminder, ‘Faith without works is dead.’ They grasp James’ challenge, ‘Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by what I do.’ (Js.2:17-18) And that is what Christians do.

James makes it clear that living faith issues in action. That is his point; faith is the tree, fruit its product. If the tree is dead, James insists, the fruit will be absent. The fruit is evidence of a living tree. Where Mormons see good works as the emphasis of James’ teaching, the real emphasis is faith. An absence of good works is evidence of a dead faith, the presence of good works is evidence of living faith. It is that living faith that saves, and not the fruit it produces.

Paul writes, ‘It is by grace you have been saved (note the past tense) through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no-one can boast.’ (Eph.2:8) There is no contradiction here. Clearly, Paul agrees with James, urging us to, ‘do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share…’ (1 Tim.6:18) Yet he is clear in his teaching – works don’t save. Paul the evangelist is effectively explaining how we are put right with God, James the pastor how a saved people live.

Just as a tree is first planted, then produces fruit, so a Christian is first born-again, then produces the good works that are the natural product of an established and well-nurtured Christian life.

All Things New

When Jesus instituted what we call communion, what Mormons call ‘sacrament,’ he said, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood.’ (Lk.22:20) He is described as, ‘the mediator of a new covenant.’ (Heb.9:15) Church leaders are, ‘ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.’ (2 Cor.3:6) Christians are to, ‘Walk in newness of life.’ (Ro.6:4) a new life that is described in some detail in the Sermon on the Mount. To an unregenerate person this can seem every bit as daunting as being told in a priesthood session to be worthy, be great, keep commandments and covenants, obey laws and keep doing, doing, and doing, because its up to us.

‘God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’

But Jesus told Nicodemus, ‘You must be born again.’ This means more than simply coming to a decision to follow him and putting our backs to the task. To be born again is to be a new creature. Paul writes, ‘If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.’ Note again the tense (2 Cor.5:16-17 ESV) Warning believers in Galatia against trusting in law-keeping, Paul writes ‘Neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.’ (Gal.6:15)

He urges believers in Colossae, ‘Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off (tense again) the old self, with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.’ (Col.3:9-10) This renewing in knowledge is not simply learning and striving to keep to better ways. To saints in Ephesus Paul describes it as being renewed in the spirit, or attitude, of your minds, ‘and [putting] on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness.’ (Eph.4:23-24)

To be born again is all these and more. It is to be recreated, like the first creation a work of God, and it is this new creature that follows after God, confident in the promise of Jesus:

‘I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.’ (John 5:24)

This text is weighted with incredible promises. The present possession of eternal life, the confidence that we will not be condemned, and the knowledge that death no longer has dominion. All this because of the finished work of Christ on the cross, because of a risen Saviour, and an empty tomb, and the promise of Jesus that, ‘God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’ (John 3:16)

One of those priesthood-holders may say, ‘I believe in Jesus, so all this must apply to me. I am saved!’ Two problems immediately present themselves. The first is that this teaching is alien to Mormonism. The Mormon Church simply doesn’t teach it though it is the theme running through the teaching of every New Testament writer. The second is that putting your faith in Jesus totally precludes putting your faith in anything or anyone else. It is Christ or works, not faith and works. The Mormon Church demands, however, that these priesthood holders earn these blessings by great efforts, taking personal responsibility to do what is necessary, to keep their temple covenants, to prove worthy, and gain celestial glory. These are the efforts, this the thinking of the old creature

Eternal life is for that new creature, who has put off the old self, and is being renewed after the image of his creator, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness, having been made alive in Christ, having received the promised Holy Spirit.

Having entered the new covenant mediated by Jesus, experienced the new birth (1 Pet.1:3), this new creation walks through this world in the full assurance of God’s promise that he is making all things new (Rev.21:5) and that, ‘we have the first fruits of the Spirit [and] groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we are saved.’ (Ro.8:23-24)

‘All this from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore, Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God’ (2 Cor.5:17-21)

This article first appeared on The Bog of Mormon, where the whole Mormon weekend conference is reviewed.

]]>http://reachouttrust.org/priesthood-session/feed/0Mormon Excommunication James Hamulahttp://reachouttrust.org/mormon-excommunication/
http://reachouttrust.org/mormon-excommunication/#respondSat, 12 Aug 2017 18:14:14 +0000http://reachouttrust.org/?p=3558News broke on 8 August of the excommunication of a high ranking Mormon Church leader. Read the official statement here. The story was covered by major news outlets, but the most frequently cited reports are from the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News. The Tribune reported: ‘On Tuesday morning James J Hamula was released […]

‘On Tuesday morning James J Hamula was released from his position in the First Quorum of the Seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after disciplinary action. LDS Church spokesman Eric Hawkins provided no details about the removal. But the church did confirm Hamula was no longer a member of the church and that his ouster was not for apostasy or disillusionment.’

What does excommunication mean in the Mormon Church? What does it mean for such a high profile figure? The official statement that his excommunication was not for apostasy or disillusionment means he has done nothing to publicly oppose church leaders, did not ‘persist in teaching as Church doctrine information that is not Church doctrine…,’ nor has he ‘continued to follow the teachings of apostate sects…’ according to the Church Handbook of Instructions Book 1.

Disillusionment is another issue. There was a time when simply being disillusioned and deciding to leave would have triggered a disciplinary council and excommunication. It was said that there was no honourable way out of the Mormon Church, the stigma of excommunication following you into your future life.

This had especial impact in high Mormon population areas, where you would expect to conduct your every day business and life within the Mormon community. A decades-long campaign forced the leadership to revisit this policy and allow the disillusioned to simply walk away. The community impact of simply leaving, however, can still prove costly, closing businesses, withdrawing livelihoods, splitting families.

Today, the policy of the church is, ‘If a member requests name removal and a bishop or stake president has evidence of transgression that warrants convening a disciplinary council, he should not act on the request until Church discipline has been imposed or he has concluded that no disciplinary council will be held. Name removal should not be used as a substitute for or alternative to Church discipline.’

Otherwise, the member’s name is removed from church records, after a drawn out process involving much paperwork, a cooling off period, and dire warnings of eternal consequences, as well as an invitation to come back to the ‘One True Church.’ (Church Handbook 1)

Much further down the pecking order is Kate Kelly who, in 2014, was excommunicated for founding a movement advocating the ordination of women in the all-male Mormon priesthood. In 2015 John Dehlin was excommunicated for raising questions about church history and doctrine. He blogged and made podcasts about his questions and the church’s reluctance to deal with the issues raised.

The last high-ranking leader of the church to be excommunicated was George P Lee, the first native American (Lamanite) to become a General Authority. He was excommunicated in 1989, according to Lee for disagreeing with then Mormon president Ezra Taft Benson over the ending of the Indian Placement Program. He was charged with apostasy and claimed that church leaders had accused him of polygamy, immorality, and teaching false doctrines. Later he admitted that, in 1989, he had sexually abused a neighbour’s 12-year-old daughter.

Prior to that, Mormon apostle Richard Lyman was excommunicated for adultery in 1943. Lyman described his secret relationship with Anna Jacobsen Hegsted as a ‘plural marriage.’ Church authorities didn’t see it that way and Lyman was excommunicated. Worries that he might join a fundamentalist group proved unfounded and he was rebaptised in 1954. He died in 1963 at the age of 93 and his full priesthood blessings were restored posthumously in 1970.

In this latest instance excommunication follows ‘disciplinary action,’ and since it isn’t for apostasy or disillusionment, its anybody’s guess what the cause. Discipline is sometimes discretionary, sometimes mandatory, the latter covering particularly serious sins, usually of a criminal nature.

The church stands as guardian and final arbiter, through priesthoods, ceremony, and sacraments, over whatever blessings the faithful receive

We do know James Hamula no longer holds any office in the church, indeed he is no longer a Mormon. When he gets dressed in the morning, he will not wear his temple garments, which in itself will be a strange and painfully difficult experience. He will no longer be considered worthy to attend the temple, which has further ramifications for his family. Family occasions exclusive to the temple will be barred to him.

He will not have a job to go to, since he worked full time for the church. If he attends church he cannot play an active part in the simplest of activities. He cannot pray in public, take communion (which Mormons call the sacrament), take part in discussions. The most callow youth, a twelve-year-old boy, will now wield more authority as a Mormon deacon than this man who has been a missionary, bishop, stake president, mission president, and General Authority of the Mormon Church. Read his background here.

Whatever the reasons behind this news – and they may well be distressingly intimate and personal – it is important to realise how very painful and difficult this will be for all involved, especially for his wife and six children. Perhaps

our best response as Christian believers would be to pray for him and his family, and to count our blessings.

Regaining Covenants

The June 2017 Ensign magazine of the Mormon Church carried an anonymous personal testimony of someone who had suffered excommunication. One wonders at the timing. This person writes:

‘I never realized how losing my membership would change my life completely. I could no longer wear my temple garment or attend the temple. I could not pay my tithing, serve in any calling, take the sacrament, or bear my testimony or pray in church. I no longer had the gift of the Holy Ghost. Most importantly, I was not

in a covenant relationship with my Saviour through the ordinances of baptism and the temple…I was frightened that I no longer had the blessings of keeping my baptism covenants, and I worried that I might not be washed clean again.’

We don’t find out, and really don’t need to know, the reason for her excommunication. What stands out, and this is true for every Mormon, is that the church stands as guardian and final arbiter, through priesthoods, ceremony, and sacraments, over whatever blessings the faithful receive. On being excommunicated, everything is withdrawn. It is as if you were never a member of the one true church, except you ‘know the truth’ and no longer enjoy the benefits of it. Like a child looking through a sweet shop window, you can see but mustn’t touch. But this is simply not the way to mend a broken relationship.

‘You have to knock on the church door until your knuckles bleed.’

When are blessings restored? In this case it took a year, for Richard Lyman it took eleven years, but it depends to a degree on the temperament and attitude of whoever has direct authority over you. In one instance I know, an ex-communicant and personal friend was so desperate to return she abased herself before church members to the point of personally confessing and repenting of bad thoughts she had had about them.

Finally, she asked her bishop what she had to do to get back into the church. He replied, ‘You have to knock on the church door until your knuckles bleed.’ Thankfully, she heard the true gospel, repented before the One who is always ready to forgive, and was baptised a Christian before she died.

Christian Church Discipline

Church discipline is biblical, of course, but nowhere is the church an institution that issues or withholds blessings, like a corporation suspending an employee. Rather, it is a community in which we determine and develop our relationship with each other according to gospel principles and act in the last resort to protect ourselves from error and sin, and correct and restore the sinner.

Jesus demonstrates the love and patience Christians should have in dealing with these difficult issues in Matthew 18:15-17. Here the offender is first challenged personally. If the offender refuses to listen, two others come along to witness the challenge. If he still refuses to recognise his sin then the whole church is to get involved. If there is still a refusal to listen then he is cast out of the community.

We are intimate family, not impersonal society

In 2 Corinthians 2:5-11 Paul recognises that sin has impacted the whole community, as well as noting the punishment meted out. Now he urges the church to reach out to the penitent so as not to overburden him with ‘excessive sorrow.’ How many, including my friend, have been overburdened with excessive sorrow because of a legalistic attitude on the part of Mormon Church leaders?

Within the context of factions in the church, Paul writes, ‘No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval.’ (1 Corinthians 11:19) Yet he uses the phrase ‘when you come together’ three times in verses 17 to 19, indicating that differences are no reason to avoid fellowship, or to exclude someone. Here correction is to happen within the fellowship as people grow together in the faith.

Paul warns against idol feasts, ‘The sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too…’ But he recognises some have a weak conscience and even refuse meat from the market previously sacrificed to idols, while others eat conscience free. (1 Corinthians 10:23-30) This is no cause for division, but a reason for exercising grace.

My point is, while there is family discipline in the Christian Church (1 Corinthians 5:12,13; 6:4; Ephesians 5:4; Titus 3:10) it is exercised in light of the freedom we all have and grace we all enjoy in Christ, and not under the cosh of an inflexible legal system. We are intimate family, not impersonal society.

Excommunication is a last resort and is the exclusion of a person from active involvement in worship and fellowship. It is activity that is curtailed and not identity. ‘No amount of excommunication will produce a perfect church, since it cannot deal with secret sins and hypocrisy. Also the oil of leniency has to be mixed with the vinegar of severity’ (New Bible Dictionary) Such judgement as is necessary is passed by a community that is, itself, imperfect and in need of daily grace. Augustine wrote:

‘We judge that it pertains unto sound doctrine…to attempt our life and opinion, so that we both endure dogs in the church, for the sake of the peace of the church, and, where the peace of the church is safe, give not what is holy unto dogs…that we neither grow listless under the name of patience, nor be cruel under the pretext of diligence.’ (Augustine, Treatises, 1884, p.43)

]]>http://reachouttrust.org/mormon-excommunication/feed/0God, gods, and Mormonism’s Ultimate ‘Road Map’http://reachouttrust.org/mormon-gods/
http://reachouttrust.org/mormon-gods/#respondTue, 27 Jun 2017 15:59:34 +0000http://reachouttrust.org/?p=3542Dallin H Oaks of Mormonism’s Twelve Apostles is a lawyer and jurist (North America: legal expert, judge) and the tempered and balanced tone of his profession comes across in his April 2017 conference talk. (See also Ensign magazine, May 2017, pp 100-103) Sans passion, his delivery is measured and reasonable, if emphatic, but is ultimately […]

]]>Dallin H Oaks of Mormonism’s Twelve Apostles is a lawyer and jurist (North America: legal expert, judge) and the tempered and balanced tone of his profession comes across in his April 2017 conference talk. (See also Ensign magazine, May 2017, pp 100-103) Sans passion, his delivery is measured and reasonable, if emphatic, but is ultimately frustrated by the content of his talk. That such gifts should serve to press an apologetic for the Mormon plan of salvation is more than unfortunate.

Yet the faithful probably loved it, hung on his every word as he carefully enunciated all they knew in their hearts to be true, and corrected every ‘other Christian’ on the planet. Unusually in the correlated to mediocrity Mormonism of the 21st century, he spoke reasonably plainly of what Mormons believe about eternal things. In a classic example of content without substance, assertion without grounds, he could almost have been channelling Bruce R McConkie.

The Nature of God

Speaking of the nature of the Mormon God, he says, ‘In contrast to the belief that God is an incomprehensible and unknowable mystery is the truth that the nature of God and our relationship to Him is knowable and is the key to everything else in our doctrine. The Bible records Jesus’s (sic) great Intercessory Prayer, where He declared that “this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”‘ (John 17:3)

The Westminster Confession describes God, ‘There is but one only, living and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute, working in all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will…’

There are some big words in there, but I don’t see anywhere ‘unknowable.’‘Incomprehensible’ has been taken to mean ‘unknowable,’ but they are not the same. Mormonism portrays Christians as having, down the centuries, arrived at this idea of God’s unknowability by councils and long drawn out deliberations, because we have lost our way and simply ‘don’t know.’ Nothing could be further from the truth.

We call him infinite, invisible, immense, eternal, almighty, immutable, and incomprehensible, because the Bible tells us he is all these things and more.

God is Incomprehensible but not Unknowable

To finite, created beings, the infinite God is incomprehensible (unfathomable, inscrutable), but he is not unknowable since that would make him incapable of making himself known, which would make him less than God. If life is to know the only true God (Jn.17:3) then life is most certainly available since the only true God has made himself known (Heb.1:1-3; Jn.14:9) This understanding is key to everything else in Christian doctrine and cannot be so easily dismissed.

Mormons also have a problem with the way God is described as ‘without passions.’ The objection is that Scripture clearly shows God loving, caring, grieving, angry, etc. But the writers of the confession knew their Bible and simply meant God’s love, care, grief, and anger are not impulsive, unpredictable, and contingent like man’s, but, righteous, measured, and settled according to his perfect character. They are contrasting God with man, not a passionless God with a passionate.

The Divines writing the Confession lined up their witnesses carefully, making full use of God’s revealed word in Scripture. Moses, Job, Jeremiah, Malachi, Nehemiah, Nahum, John, Luke, Paul, and more. Who stands as witness to Dallin H Oaks’ claims?

According to Joseph

‘In his First Vision, Joseph Smith saw two distinct personages, two beings, two gods, thus clarifying that the then-prevailing beliefs concerning God and the Godhead were not true.’

‘The Prophet Joseph Smith taught…’

‘We know this from instruction given by the Prophet Joseph Smith...’

‘The Prophet Joseph Smith explained…’

You can see where this is going. The Mormon conception of God is founded entirely on what ‘the Prophet Joseph Smith taught…’ What Mormons ‘know,’ Joseph taught them to know.

He does call on Isaiah to make his case that God is knowable.

‘…in trying to teach Israelites the nature of God and His relationship to His children, the prophet Isaiah declared, as recorded in the Bible:

“To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?…

“Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?” (Isaiah 40:18, 21).’

You see the point he is making. ‘Have ye not known?’ is meant to emphasise knowing, a wasted point since we already agree God is knowable. But what is it Isaiah wants Israelites to know about God?

‘Who has understood the mind of the LORD, or instructed him as his counsellor? Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding?’ (Is.40:13/14)

Reading further in the Isaiah text, nicely selected by this Mormon leader, we read, ‘Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.’ (Is.40:28)

Isaiah is describing the immutable and incomprehensible nature of God, not of gods. No plan of salvation brought him to his place, no one instructed, enlightened, or taught him for he is God eternally. His understanding no one can fathom. In other words, he is incomprehensible. Yet Isaiah would have Israel know him such that they would trust him.

Later God declares of himself, ‘You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.’ (Is.44:8) ‘I am the LORD and there is no other; apart from me there is no God.’ (Is.45:5)

The gods of Mormonism

What do Mormons do with this conception of God? Christians talk about a Trinity, what do Mormons talk about? A Council. The Mormon Godhead is a Council. What are the respective roles of members of this Council?

“Any person that had seen the heavens opened knows that there are three personages in the heavens who hold the keys of power, and one presides over all…

“…These personages … are called God the first, the Creator; God the second, the Redeemer; and God the third, the Witness or Testator.

“[It is] the province of the Father to preside as the Chief or President, Jesus as the Mediator, and the Holy Ghost as the Testator or Witness.” (Teachings of Joseph Smith (2007), 268)

Mormonism has three gods, one of whom is president of this quorum of divine beings. This presidency presides over and administers, ‘the plan of salvation, the great plan of happiness, or the plan of redemption.’ Dallin Oaks goes on to say, ‘The gospel of Jesus Christ is central to this plan.’ Note, the gospel isn’t the plan, something Christians might assume. How central we shall see.

The Plan

There is a lot of this world in this idea of a presiding authority exercising ‘keys of power,’ over what looks for all the world like a business plan, or a version of Future Mapping.

The Mormon plan of salvation claims to answer the familiar questions, ‘Where did we come from?’ ‘Why are we here?’ and ‘Where are we going?’ Its rather like asking, ‘How long have you been with us now?’‘How are you fitting in?’ and ‘Where do you see yourself in X years?’ Consider:

‘As spirit children of God, in an existence prior to mortality, we desired a destiny of eternal life but had progressed as far as we could without a mortal experience in a physical body. To provide that opportunity, our Heavenly Father presided over the Creation of this world, where, deprived of our memory of what preceded our mortal birth, we could prove our willingness to keep His commandments and experience and grow through the other challenges of mortal life. But in the course of that mortal experience, and as a result of the Fall of our first parents, we would suffer spiritual death by being cut off from the presence of God, be soiled by sin, and become subject to physical death. The Father’s plan anticipated and provided ways to overcome all of those barriers.’ (Dallin Oaks, p.101 emphasis added)

We desired – here is personal ambition.

Opportunity – a chance opens up to fulfil that ambition.

Prove our willingness – a chance to work hard and shine.

Ways to overcome – and gain promotion, mastery over your destiny.

Compare this with the Bible’s account of man’s place in God’s purposes:

‘Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over…all the earth, and over all the creatures…’ So God created man…God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the ground.” (Gen:1:26-28)

The Larger Catechism of the Westminster Assembly declares, ‘Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, (Ro.11:36; 1 Cor.10:31) and fully to enjoy him forever. (Ps.73:24-28; Jn.17:21-23)’

We are made to inhabit and possess the earth, to rule over God’s creation, to work, take care of, cultivate, and enjoy creation, co-regent with and enjoying fellowship with God (Ps.8: 6-8; 104:14/15; Amos 4:13) Mankind’s greatest satisfaction and ambition was to be found in friendship with God (Ps.27:1-4) The answer to Mormonism’s ‘purpose questions’ might come as, ‘Creation is my beginning and God made me to rule his creation. I am here to enjoy the earth, and my ultimate purpose is to do his will and glorify him,’ not to fulfil my own will and purpose. Far from having the memory of our beginnings wiped, we have a very clear picture of our origins in creation.

The ‘barriers’ that Mormonism sees as integral to our being tested for worthiness, and glory, are described in the Bible as the dire consequences of the fall, ‘for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ (Ro.3:23) God’s plan is one of rescue and restoration, not ambition and achievement. Paul describes the one-time lives of the saved:

‘As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.’ (Eph.2:1-3)

Our life without Christ is ‘dead,’ we served another, lived among and were one of ‘the disobedient,’ ‘gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature…by nature objects of wrath.’ This is not a test but an eternal death sentence.

A Very Different Destination

Paul goes on:

‘But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved.’ (Eph.2:4/5)

Our eternal destiny is not in our own hands but it is God who, because of his love and mercy, brings the dead back to life, saves by grace, through faith in Christ. As to that eternal destiny, Paul writes:

‘And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.’ (Eph.2:6/7)

Mormons anticipate a day when they might be found worthy to enter the ‘celestial kingdom’ of God, but my Bible tells me, because I am ‘in Christ,’ I am already seated in the heavenly realms with Christ and am awaiting the coming ages when this promise is fully realised. It would be worth your while spending time reading the first two chapters of Ephesians and noting the number of times everything is contingent on being ‘in Christ.’

Paul writes about that day:

‘I consider our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.’ (Ro.8:18-21)

It is Paul’s heartfelt prayer that believers in Ephesus, and therefore we, ‘may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God.’ (Eph.3:17-19)

The Mormon plan of salvation is typically presented in graphic form. I wonder if you can spot what is missing in this otherwise pretty comprehensive picture of the Mormon meta-narrative? Where is the Fall? Where is Jesus? Where is Calvary? Where the empty tomb? Where is the immeasurable love of God that freely saves the wicked who cannot save themselves?

LDS Plan of Salvation, How Men Become gods

Where is the promise of Jesus:

‘I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life [present possession] and will not be condemned [future assurance]; he has crossed over from death to life’ [past event]. (Jn.5:24)

]]>http://reachouttrust.org/mormon-gods/feed/0‘Living by Faith’ Through Mormon Eyeshttp://reachouttrust.org/mormon-faith/
http://reachouttrust.org/mormon-faith/#respondWed, 24 May 2017 15:51:56 +0000http://reachouttrust.org/?p=3529The April 2017 first presidency message by Dieter Uchtdorf, second counsellor in the Mormon presidency, is based on Romans 1:17, ‘The just shall live by faith.’ (KJV). He begins with the familiar enough story of the Rabbi and the soap maker that concludes, just as soap must be put to use to make you clean, […]

The April 2017 first presidency message by Dieter Uchtdorf, second counsellor in the Mormon presidency, is based on Romans 1:17, ‘The just shall live by faith.’ (KJV). He begins with the familiar enough story of the Rabbi and the soap maker that concludes, just as soap must be put to use to make you clean, so faith must be put to work to ‘transform lives.’ This transformation is familiar enough to Christians, who call it sanctification, the process whereby we become progressively more Christlike and holy.

A Mormon reading this message will typically make the comparison between Mormonism’s practical application of faith and what Mormons perceive as the Evangelical doctrine of salvation by passive faith, faith alone. Uchtdorf’s message does nothing to disabuse Mormons of this judgement as he addresses the question, ‘how shall we live?’

Mormon Misdirection

Every time he urges Mormons to action the Mormon mind will make that unspoken but fundamental comparison with what they see as Evangelical presumption on God’s good grace. He makes stark comparisons between, ‘a religion that is frail and ineffectual and one that has the power to transform lives.’ This is a classic example of Mormonism’s ‘dog-whistle theology,’ and Mormons know who he is talking about.

‘Faith is more than belief. It is complete trust in God accompanied by action,’ he insists. ‘It is more than wishing. It is more than merely sitting back, nodding our heads, and saying we agree. When we say “the just shall live by faith,” we mean we are guided and directed by our faith. We act in a manner that is consistent with our faith—not out of a sense of thoughtless obedience but out of a confident and sincere love for our God and for the priceless wisdom He has revealed to His children.’

‘Faith must be accompanied by action,’ comes the familiar assertion, ‘else it has no life (see James 2:17). It is not faith at all. It doesn’t have the power to change a single individual, let alone the world.’

‘Men and women of faith,’ he reminds his listeners, ‘earnestly walk the path of discipleship and strive to follow the example of their beloved Savior, Jesus Christ. Faith motivates and, indeed, inspires us to incline our hearts to heaven and to actively reach out, lift up, and bless our fellow men.’

‘The restored gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of action. The Church of Jesus Christ teaches true religion as a message of hope, faith, and charity, including helping our fellow men in spiritual and temporal ways.’

Like a subtle form of misdirection, Mormonism teaches that those ‘other Christians,’ have a frail and ineffectual faith.

The faith he describes is very familiar to every Christian, though Mormons congratulate themselves that faith inspiring action is a peculiar aspect of the ‘Restored gospel of Jesus Christ’ (Mormonism). But, even in Utah, in Salt Lake City, there are Evangelical congregations. Indeed, from Catholics, to Presbyterians, to Evangelical Free churches Mormonism has worked alongside believers on community projects, been co-belligerents in worthy causes, and taken every opportunity to publicise the fact.

Here is a newsroom story about ‘Mormons and Catholics standing together on key issues.’Another story reported on the LDS Newsroom site tells of, ‘Mormons [joining] with Methodists, Catholics, Presbyterians and other Christians to hold a concert to raise money so food could be purchased for needy families in their city.’

Surely, Mormons see Evangelical believers moved to action by their faith? Yet they seem blind to the sacrifices and works of others. Like a subtle form of misdirection, the Mormon message convinces Mormons that those ‘other Christians,’ in other churches have a frail and ineffectual faith, while Mormons exercise a faith that changes lives and moves them to action. A puzzle, isn’t it? I imagine the following conversation between an Evangelical Christian and a Mormon.

Conversation With a Mormon

Christian: Where do you get the idea that “Christians don’t believe in works”?

Mormon: Every Evangelical I speak to tells me that they are saved by grace alone. But James 1:5 says that “faith without works is dead”.

Christian: Do you count any Evangelicals among your friends and neighbours?

Mormon: Yes, I do and they all say the same thing – “grace alone, faith alone”.

Christian: These Evangelical friends, do they go to church?

Mormon: Yes, we see them setting off Sunday mornings about the same time as us.

Christian: And do they have a nice building in which to meet?

Mormon:Yes, it’s a nice building.

Christian: And they have a pastor?

Mormon: Yes, they have a paid minister.

Christian:And do your Evangelical friends get involved in the community?

Mormon:Yes, they seem to have open houses just like we do and they run a soup kitchen, help with shelter for the homeless.

Christian:How do you think the building, its upkeep, the pastor, etc. are paid for?

Mormon: I suppose they take up a collection or something.

Christian:So, these Christian friends, who don’t believe in works, attend church regularly and seem to pay for their own building, pastor and running expenses by what I suppose you would call tithes and offerings. They busy themselves with charity work, invite the neighbours in for refreshments, and make every effort to tell the gospel. Quite busy then; for people who don’t believe in works?

Mormon: I hadn’t thought of it that way. But if works are required then why don’t you say as much instead of continually talking about “grace alone”?

Christian: But works are not required in the way you mean.

Mormon: I don’t understand. You are making no sense.

Christian: I am making perfect sense, biblical sense. But you are right in saying you don’t understand. It is because you are so full of Mormon preconceptions about my faith that you have left no room for any other understanding. Christians do good works because we are saved not in order to be saved. Works are the fruit of salvation (John 15) and that fruit is evident in the Christian churches you see around you if you care to see it.

Mormon: But James writes, ‘faith without works is dead.’ (Js.2:17) What do you make of that?

Christian: And Paul writes, ‘It is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.’ (Eph.2:8) Either James and Paul are contradicting each other, or they are talking about different things. If you believe the Bible is reliable only as far as it is translated correctly, you may presume a contradiction. I believe the Bible is completely reliable and trust this apparent contradiction can be explained.

James is writing as a local church leader, Paul is writing as a missionary in the field

Think about their respective roles. Paul is writing as a missionary in the field, writing to people about getting saved, James is writing as a local church leader, writing to believers about living saved. The word ‘saved’ is nowhere in the James text, indeed the issue of salvation doesn’t arise there, it is the main theme in the Paul text. It is because of God’s clear message to the lost through Paul that Evangelicals insist we are ‘saved by grace, through faith in Christ.’ It is because of God’s clear message to the church through James that Evangelicals ‘continue to work out [their] salvation with fear and trembling.’ (Paul in Philip.2:12)

Christianity or Christianity-lite?

There is irony in a German Mormon prophet taking the key text of the Reformation, used by the German Catholic priest Martin Luther to refute the works-based message of the Roman Church, and using it to preach the works-based message of Mormonism. While we mark 500 years since Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Wittenberg church door, Mormonism is still busy reconstructing a gospel of works (which is no gospel at all Gal.1:6-7). Read Paul’s carefully reasoned argument in Galatians and it is very clear what he means.

Dieter Uchtdorf’s understanding of Ro.1:17 is, ‘When we say “the just shall live by faith,” we mean we are guided and directed by our faith.’ (p.4, emphasis in original) In another irony, this follows the Latin understanding, justificare, meaning to be made righteous by sacraments. A way made to become righteous.

Luther’s understanding of Ro.1:17 is that righteousness is a free gift to those who don’t have a righteousness of their own (Philip.3:9) obtained through faith in Christ. This following the original Greek dikaios, meaning to declare, or to regard as righteous now. Not something to be achieved but something achieved for us in Christ. A way made to be righteous.

This is why Paul writes of ‘a righteousness from God.’ (cf. Ro.3:26b) This why Jesus is able to confidently declare, ‘Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life,.’ (Jn.5:24)

Luther, using the wider text and context of Romans 1:17, saw right relation to God as a gift from God, through Christ, i.e. ‘In the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith, from first to last.’ Uchtdorf takes just six words out of context and sees right relation to God as the product of right living. Evangelicals, agreeing with Luther, Paul, and Jesus himself, insist right living is the product of an already established right relation to God

His chosen text (Ro.1:17) is a quote from Habakkuk 2:4; ‘See, his soul is puffed up; his desires are not upright – but the righteous will live by his faith…’ The one whose soul us puffed up is Babylon, particularly the king. Babylon and its king were arrogant, relying on their own strength, but ‘the righteous will live by his faith.’

In other words, rely upon God for deliverance. Just as with national deliverance, so the Bible teaches spiritual deliverance comes the same way. The text is used frequently in the New Testament to drive home the truth that we are saved by grace, through faith (Eph.2:8-10); that no one is justified before God by the law, ‘The righteous shall live by faith’ (Gal.3:11); that, even through great struggles, affliction, and endurance, yet, ‘my righteous one shall live by faith.’ (Heb.10:38)

Yes, Luther was already here and taught us all to live by faith. An earlier giant of the Christian Church was also here and Paul the apostle to the gentiles, taught Luther all he knew.

The Jew, the Gentile and the Mormon

Paul, in his letters, faces the troubling question, how could the Jew and the Gentile, those with the Law, and those without, stand on the same level, find justification before God in the same way? Like the teachers of the Law, Mormons would have Christians (non-Mormons whom they refer to as ‘gentiles’) come under ‘the law of the gospel,’ the Mormon Plan of Salvation. Paul demonstrates the futility of this, showing the plight of both is the same:

‘What then? Are the Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks [Gentiles], are under sin, as it is written; None is righteous, no not one…’ (Ro.3:9-10 ESV)

Both need to stand righteous before God, but neither are righteous, because both have ‘sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.’ (Ro.3:23) This is not a shortfall in the common understanding of not quite having enough change to pay, where Jesus steps in to make up what is lacking. This shortfall is unworthiness, being devoid of what is needed, coming late or tardily. It is disastrous!

This state is described in the parable of the wedding banquet, where a great king gave a wedding feast for his son (Mt.22:1-14). The original invitees having excused themselves from the feast, the king sent his servants out into the streets to invite all the people they could find until the hall was full.

One man caught the king’s attention because he was not wearing wedding clothes. In the ancient world a king would honour guests with clothes (Gen.45:22; Est.6:8-9), especially in this instance, perhaps, when people were not expecting to attend a wedding. Ezekiel describes God clothing his unworthy people in ‘costly garments.’ (Ezek. 16:10-14) In the same way, the New Testament describes righteousness being imputed to those who, answering the king’s invitation, believe (Ro.3:21-31; 4:22-25) This guest, it seems, was left without excuse. The king had made every provision, nothing left out, yet this man had fallen short, depended on his own resources, and was cast out.

Just as this king had made every provision to equip his guests for the wedding feast, so God has, in Christ, made every provision for the salvation of those who would believe. Unexpectedly called, they have no wedding garments of their own, yet the invitation is clear:

‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’ (Jn.3:116)

‘But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify, This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.’ (Ro.3:21-24)

Mormonism effectively rejects the wedding garments of the king, insisting their own garments are sufficient and acceptable. And anyone knowing about the Mormon temple will understand the significance here of that word ‘garments.’

Faith Worked Out

Christians, who are justified freely because they trust God’s provision in Christ, are not blind to the Bible’s requirement that true and living faith should issue in works. (Js.2:14-26) Armchair Christians are no Christians at all! The question of salvation, however, of being put right with God, is not about how much we have done, but a question of who we have trusted, have believed. Salvation is not a question of obeying but of trusting, of abiding (Jn. 5:24;15:5).

The saved life, on the other hand, is not a question of waiting but of working. (Philip.2:12/13), ‘being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it out to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.’ (Philip.1:6)

Our faith will never fit into the scheme of Mormonism because it looks nothing like Mormonism. No temples, no “priesthood”, except that which we share as followers of Christ, (1 Cor.3:16) no “law of eternal progression” because we are a saved people getting down to work, not a working people hoping to one day prove ‘worthy enough.’. All that we need to grow more Christ-like we find in Christ.(Heb.13:20-21)

“Church” is not for us an institution we join to be saved but a natural congregating of all those who are in Christ, those who are saved, who gather to sing his praises, encourage one another and work to build his kingdom, of which we are now part, ‘For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.’ (Acts 2:42-47)

The Mormon view is that what I have is a sort of Christianity-lite, while Mormonism is the real thing “Restored”, a sort of Christianity with muscle. Mormons believe their faith is a fuller expression of mine, that if I were to become a Mormon their church would add to what I have and correct some misconceptions on my part. However, the Mormon faith bears nothing but the most superficial resemblance to mine.

Of course Christians have order, structure and rules to live by. It would be impossible to function without these things. Of course we believe in obedience, charity, making sacrifices, and being accountable; what on earth do they think we are? Do they really believe we are blind to the New Testament’s call to action? Augustus Toplady said:

Grace cannot be severed from its fruits. If God gives you St. Paul’s faith you will soon have St. James’ works.

Faith and works are essential in the Christian faith, but these simply don’t work in any way a Mormon would understand, because my Christian faith is completely unlike the Mormon faith. In Mormonism works issue in salvation and exaltation, in my faith grace issues in salvation, through faith, and works are the fruit of saving faith, exactly the point being made by James. What gives us confidence and hope, then, is quite different.

So if Mormons are to understand they must be prepared to see through different eyes before they could possibly say whether they like what you see in Evangelical faith. Otherwise, they will simply be judging and dismissing a caricature of my faith, based on inappropriate comparisons with their faith, and on misconceptions taught by their church.

What I find tragic is that they believe that, based on sound teaching, they have accepted the Mormon message and rejected the Christian Evangelical gospel. However, their decision is based entirely on wrong information and mistaken ideas. If you are going to prefer Mormonism over what I believe at least understand properly what it is you are rejecting.

]]>http://reachouttrust.org/mormon-faith/feed/0Mormonism’s Dog-Whistle Theologyhttp://reachouttrust.org/mormonisms-dog-whistle-theology/
http://reachouttrust.org/mormonisms-dog-whistle-theology/#respondTue, 09 May 2017 10:42:37 +0000http://reachouttrust.wpengine.com/?p=3704The Mormon Church has a history of dismissing established truth in order to establish its own. What has history made of the Bible, and how does Mormonism’s attitude compare? ‘I have taught you nothing but God’s holy word, and those lessons that I have taken out of God’s holy book I have come hither to seal […]

]]>The Mormon Church has a history of dismissing established truth in order to establish its own. What has history made of the Bible, and how does Mormonism’s attitude compare?

‘I have taught you nothing but God’s holy word, and those lessons that I have taken out of God’s holy book I have come hither to seal with my blood’ (Rowland Taylor, to his parishioners at Hadley, [Suffolk, England] before kissing the stake at which he was to be burned February, 1555)

‘We present you with this book, the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is wisdom; this is the royal law; these are the lively oracles of God’ (Words at the presentation of the Bible at a coronation, spoken by the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland)

What do you think of the Bible? Is it, to you, ‘the most valuable thing that this world affords?’Is it worthy of being sealed with the blood of martyrs? The New Testament is described in the January Ensign magazine of the Mormon Church as,‘…one of the most influential and life-changing texts in the history of the world…’ (Ensign, Jan.2015, p51)

One of the most influential texts? This suggests there are other texts we may legitimately put alongside the Bible for which Rowland Taylor, and so many others, died. That Queen Elizabeth II might have been handed other, as precious ‘lively oracles’ in 1953. That the Bible is simply one of the most valuable things this world affords, containing some useful wisdom, a handy portion of the royal law, some of the lively oracles of God. the Mormon Church has a history of dismissing established truth in order to establish its own, and this Ensign article is no exception.

It reads almost like a valediction to a superseded age, a farewell to an old retainer who serves ill this latter age of prophets, seers, and revelators. ‘The restoration,’ we are told, ‘clarifies and enhances New Testament teachings…’Truth, it appears, is not as steady on its legs any more and needs help getting around, making its point, being understood. There ought, perhaps, to be a home for old truth, a place of retirement. Maybe a comfortable chair beneath a shady tree where it can receive the plaudits it deserves for what it did in its day. A a well-earned rest, perhaps to be visited occasionally, a sunny veranda from which it can watch new truth play at redefining the world in its own image.

For all that, we are assured that this superannuation of old truth,‘does not diminish the love and reverence that [Mormons] feel for the New Testament.’ ‘Grand old thing,’ you can almost hear them say. Do the revelations of Mormonism enhance established truth? Does its doctrine ‘build upon the foundation of New Testament teachings?’

Mormonism Faith and Grace

Testament of Another Jesus Christ?

Here we find the usual dog whistle theology, something for the faithful that the rest won’t hear, the employment of a coded language to convey a hidden message. The article insists, ‘true faith in Jesus Christ is coupled with obedience,’and any true believing Mormon will understand that this means, “not like my one-day-a-week ‘Christian’ neighbour.”

And so it goes on:

Ephesians 2:8, ‘By grace ye are saved, through faith…’is ‘enriched’ by reference to 2 Nephi 10:24 and a call to ‘yield our wills to God by believing in His Son, repenting, keeping His commandments, and doing good works.’ (Can you hear the whistle?)

Philippians 4:13, ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me,’is ‘clarified’ by a reminder that the atonement doesn’t just save us but enables us to do good, to ‘bear our burdens with ease.’ It is an ‘enabling power.’ (Can you hear the whistle now?)

‘Thus, Restoration scriptures,’ we are assured, ‘support the New Testament’s teachings on grace and also expand our view of it, helping us see the hand of the Lord in our lives and how we can access His power here and now.’

This is a coded allusion, a sideswipe at Christians who are portrayed in Mormonism as not believing in perseverance, obedience, good works, being faithful to the end. Mormonism insists that Christians pay mere lip service in their devotion, have an easy-believism. Joseph Smith even said our creeds are abominable, and we who profess them corrupt (Joseph Smith History 1:19)

But obedience was never lost to the Christian faith, as history and current experience show. It is an insult to caricature Christians in this way. Our creed is that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, but that faith doesn’t come alone, it is accompanied by obedience, ‘works that follow.’ (Eph.4:12) The Bible doesn’t need enriching, or clarifying here, it has myriad calls to action of which Christians are well aware and on which we daily act. What Mormons misunderstand, sometimes wilfully it must be said, is that we don’t depend on our ‘good works’ to gain us any merits with God. Our God isn’t that gullible.

The article speaks of the ‘’’enabling power’ of grace as something ‘clarified’ through Mormon prophets, quoting Elder David Bednar:

‘Not only does the Atonement overcome the effects of the Fall of Adam and make possible the remission of our individual sins and transgressions, but His Atonement also enables us to do good and become better in ways that stretch far beyond our portal capacities.’(Ensign, May 2014, p.89)

The article goes on:

‘This idea that God grants people His enabling power here and now is a theme that runs throughout the Book of Mormon, which contains numerous stories of people who are strengthened to overcome life’s difficulties,’ but goes on, ‘Even though the Book of Mormon doesn’t often use the word grace in describing such events, it contains multiple accounts in which the Lord strengthens people who humble themselves and exercise faith in him.’

It might occur to you to ask exactly how many times grace is mentioned in the seminal book of Mormonism, and how does this compare with Christian Scripture? Using their edition of the King James Bible, the official Bible of Mormonism, I have found 122 verses containing 131 matches. In the Book of Mormon (22), the Doctrine and Covenants (17), the Pearl of Great Price (1), together there are forty uses of the word ‘grace.’ One thing of which we may be certain, far from enhancing the Bible’s teaching on grace, Mormonism has rather diminished it!

‘Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God and fully to enjoy him forever.’

Be that as it may, the typical Mormon when presented with this teaching thinks, ‘course my Christian neighbour doesn’t have the Book of Mormon so doesn’t understand this principle of works, which explains their tardiness in following faithfully, explains their blind faith in ‘Jesus Saves!’’ (Can you hear the dog-whistle?) But the ‘enabling power’ of grace has always been familiar to Christians who, having been saved by it, walk in the strength of it every day. We trust in Christ and work out our faith in our lives (Philip.2:12).

Mormons, on the other hand, believe themselves, ‘saved by obedience,’ (3rd Article of Faith) and that salvation they describe as ‘progression’ to a state they term ‘exaltation.’ ‘This is my work and my glory,’ declares the Mormon God, ‘to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.’ (Moses 1:39, Pearl of Great Price) I can’t think of anything more self-serving and impious than to assign to God the task of exalting me. Nor can I imagine anything more futile than the pursuit of my own exaltation.

The Bible is very clear in ascribing all the glory to God, ‘from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever, Amen!’ (Rom.11:36) The Larger Catechism sums it up well in declaring, ‘Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God and fully to enjoy him forever.’ The familiar doxology in Ephesians tells us all we need to know:

‘Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his great power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen!’ (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Faith and Works

A much more recent Ensign magazine, the 2016 October conference edition, has the Mormon president insisting Christ and faith in him is not enough:

‘Essential to the plan is our Savior, Jesus Christ. Without His atoning sacrifice, all would be lost. It is not enough, however, merely to believe in Him and His mission. We need to work and learn, search and pray, repent and improve. We need to know God’s laws and live them. Only by so doing will obtain true, eternal happiness…Let us live the truth, that we might merit all that the Father has for us.’

(Ensign, Nov.2016, pp 80-81)

The Christian emphasis on grace and faith seems to a Mormon an easy way to heaven, a ‘get out of jail free’ card, undeserved and unmerited. But that is the nature of grace, it is undeserved. In the Old Testament it translates the Hebrew chesed, normally translated ‘loving-kindness.’ It stands for God’s continued faithfulness to his covenant people, even as they prove less than faithful to him. In the New Testament it translates the Greek charis, which denotes God’s redemptive love, always active to save sinners and maintain them in a proper relationship with him. The emphasis of grace is always and without exception the work and activity of God, his active redemption of undeserving sinners who cannot ‘merit all that the Father has for us.’

The Mormon emphasis on works seems commendable but simply doesn’t reflect Bible teaching. It fails completely to recognise the desperate state of fallen man, ‘dead in sin’ (Eph.2:1). Mormons ‘strive to be worthy’ of God’s undeserved favour; surely a contradiction in terms. If it is undeserved you cannot, by definition, be worthy of it. Paul makes clear, ‘the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord’ (Ro.6:23).

According to the Bible, the only thing you can earn, indeed have earned, is death, while the life for which Mormons strive is God’s gift to repentant sinners. It is when that life is received, is ‘in us,’ that we are enabled to ‘work out [our] salvation’ working out in our lives what God has put in our hearts simply because we have trusted in Jesus. It is only having received eternal life that we are able to ‘show [our] faith by what [we] do’(James 2:18)

‘Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.’’

There are no secret asides, no knowing looks, no nods and winks, there is no dog whistle in the Christian faith. We set out the truth plainly and commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. Mormons put the cart before the horse, making faithfulness a condition of salvation, whereas the Bible puts the horse first, making faithfulness the fruit of salvation. That is why a born-again believer in Jesus can confidently declare they have an eternal inheritance. This is not arrogance, it is assurance. Jesus declared:

‘I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life [present possession] and will not be condemned[future hope]; he has crossed over from death to life [past event].’

]]>http://reachouttrust.org/mormonisms-dog-whistle-theology/feed/0The Mormon Temple – Is It Biblical?http://reachouttrust.org/mormons-restore-biblical-temples/
http://reachouttrust.org/mormons-restore-biblical-temples/#respondMon, 03 Apr 2017 16:02:50 +0000http://reachouttrust.org/?p=3514 Five new temples were announced by the Mormon Church president during his Sunday morning address (April 2, 2017) at the church’s 187th annual General Conference. This brings the number of temples worldwide, operating or under construction, to 182 according to the Mormon newsroom. Mormonism teaches these temples are a restoration of biblical temples in […]

Five new temples were announced by the Mormon Church president during his Sunday morning address (April 2, 2017) at the church’s 187th annual General Conference. This brings the number of temples worldwide, operating or under construction, to 182 according to the Mormon newsroom.

Mormonism teaches these temples are a restoration of biblical temples in the last days before Christ’s second advent. Do Mormon temples have ancient biblical parallels? Those of us who have been inside a Mormon temple would be hard pushed to see any parallels between what went on in temples in Bible times and what goes on inside Mormon temples today. What is the history of temples? Of the temples we see in the Bible, which one has Mormonism “restored”?

These temples are costly to build and maintain and demand of Mormons a level of commitment that is exceptional, both in proving worthy to attend and in the sacrifices involved in attending; travel, financial sacrifice, time commitment and physical effort. It is not called temple “work” for nothing. This illustrates a point often overlooked by those who comment only casually on religious issues. Faith is a commitment unlike anything else in life. Of course, there are always those nominal members whose involvement is marginal, but for a great many believers of any persuasion it is a life-defining, heart-felt commitment.

It is worth asking, then, whether our loyalty is wisely placed, our commitment wisely invested. The apostle Paul urged Christians to, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves” (2 Cor.13:5) Good advice when your faith will shape profoundly your life and determine your eternity. For that is what Mormon temples are about, time and eternity. The Mormon newsroom reports:

Latter-day Saints consider temples to be the “house of the Lord,” the most sacred places on the earth. Temples differ from the meetinghouses or chapels where all are welcome to attend Sunday worship services. In the temple, the teachings of Jesus Christ are reaffirmed through marriage, baptism and other ceremonies that unite families for eternity.

Mormons believe their faith is a restoration of Christ’s New Testament Church and therefore build temples just as Christians did in ancient times. They regard Mormon temples as primarily places of learning and instruction and liken them to the Lord’s university:

‘We learn about our relationship with God. We learn about the purposes of our life here upon the earth. Questions such as where did we come from? Why are we here? What happens to us after we die? Those questions are addressed and answered in the instruction that’s presented in the temple. We also make promises to live

If this is true then Christians should be building temples. Indeed we should put down whatever we are doing and make every effort to become a worthy temple Mormon – no mean feat I assure you. The temple is at the centre of the Mormon faith, the impression given that temples have always been at the centre of worship for God’s people. But did ancient temples fill the role attributed to them by Mormons and did Christians in ancient times build temples?

Ancient Temples

Temples were plentiful in Ur of the Chaldee, in Mesopotamia, the place Abraham left to follow the Lord (Gen.11:27-12:4) There were many gods and each had a temple.

From the time of Abraham, the patriarchs were nomadic and God appeared to them as and when he pleased, sometimes at the scene of a sacrificial altar (Gen.28:22)

When Israel became a people called out of slavery they had, by God’s command, a central shrine in the desert in the form of a portable tabernacle (Ex.25-30), but during the time of the judges God was still worshipped at different shrines and was not confined to one place (e.g. Shechem Josh.8:30; Shiloh 1 Sam.1:3)

Settled Israel finally built a temple, prepared for by King David (2 Sam.24:18-25) and built by his son Solomon (1 Ki.5-8). After 300 years this temple was sacked by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Ki.25:8,9).

In the 25th year of Israel’s exile Ezekiel saw in vision a temple which is described in some detail (Ez.40-43) but it was never built.

The second temple was built by the returning exiles (Ezra and Nehemiah) and stood for almost 500 years only to be finally destroyed by Pompey in 63 BC.

The building of Herod’s temple was begun in 19 BC but was more an attempt to reconcile Jews to the idea of having an Idumaean king than to glorify God. It took nine years to build, although work continued until 64 AD, finally being destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

‘Temple’ in the New Testament

When Jesus came he respected the temple, calling it God’s house (Mt.12:4; Jn.2:16). He cleansed the temple declaring, “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Mk.11:11-19).

But Israel’s refusal to repent issued in Jesus’ prediction of the destruction of the temple and the whole order that accompanied it (Mk.12:1-12; 13:2). The new temple was to be the congregation of the people of God, Christians (Mt.18:20; Jn. 14:23)

Although early Christians continued to meet at the temple (Acts 2:46; 3:1; 5:12) they were already realising the implications of what Jesus had said about the temple. Stephen, the church’s first martyr, was already reported as having spoken against the temple (Acts 6:11). At his martyrdom Stephen recounted the history of Israel and the temple and concluded:

“However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says:

‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.

What kind of house will you build for me? Says the Lord.

Or where will my resting place be?

Has not my hand made all things’” (Acts 7:48-51)

Finally, Paul fully develops the idea when he writes:

“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.’ (1 Cor.3:16,17, c.f. 6:19)

This idea is especially strong in a later letter:

“What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people’” (2 Cor.6:16)

Since Christians are now the temple of God our lives should reflect holiness (2 Cor.7:1) and we should seek unity in the Spirit (1 Cor.3:5-17). Old Testament language describing the in-gathering of Israel and the nations (e.g. Is.57:19, ‘far’ Gentiles, and ‘near’ Israel) is employed to describe the in-gathering of God’s people from every nation (foreigners and aliens) to be part of God’s household and living temple (Eph.2:13.17,19-22). Here the pictures of the temple and of the body are juxtaposed as Paul describes the temple as being built of believers and those believers being ‘built up’ and “growing up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” ((Eph. 4:12,16).

The thought is carried on in 1 Peter 2:4-10, where the apostle tells believers, “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God”, with the addition of the priestly and sacrificial elements of the OT temple being redefined in the Christian life.

Shadow and Reality

In Ex.25:8 we read that the tabernacle in the desert was made after a pattern revealed by God. In Hebrews we read that this sanctuary is, “a copy and a shadow of what is in heaven” (Heb.8:5). The true sanctuary is the heavenly one (Heb.9:24), which Christ entered as our Great High Priest (v.23, 24). This sanctuary belongs to the people of the new covenant (Heb.6:19, 20) and because Christ has “appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself” our souls have hope as an anchor (Heb.9:26; 6:19)

“Just as man is destined once to die once, and after that face judgement, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him” (Heb.9:27,28)

The temple was part of a sacrificial system that was a shadow of a heavenly pattern. A shadow that pointed to the once for all sacrifice of Christ, his entering the true heavenly sanctuary on our behalf, and the building of a temple made without hands, comprised of the people of God being built up and growing into their Head, who is Christ; A temple of people drawn from near and far, Jew and Gentile, in whom God dwells by his Spirit, and who exercise a royal priesthood in offering sacrifices of praise.

Mormon Temples in the Bible

Abraham left behind a temple-building culture to follow the Lord. These were the famous ziggurats, of which the Tower of Babel is the most famous (Gen.11:4). They symbolised man’s self-confidence and pride, “Come let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves…” Gen.11:4). They were man-made stairways to heaven. The names of other such structures reflect this attempt by man to reach up to heaven, “The House of the link between Heaven and Earth” at Larsa; “The House of the Seven Guides of Heaven and Earth” in Borsippa; “The House of the foundation-Platform of Heaven and Earth” at Babylon; “The House of the Mountain of the Universe” at Asshur.

These all reflected man’s attempts to reach the heavens by his own effort, achieve his own renown and a dominant godlike status. The temples of Mormonism are described as:

“…primarily places of learning and instruction and like…the Lord’s university: ‘We learn about our relationship with God. We learn about the purposes of our life here upon the earth. Questions such as where did we come from? Why are we here? What happens to us after we die? Those questions are addressed and answered in the instruction that’s presented in the temple. We also make promises to live honest, upright and virtuous lives.’”

Joseph Smith said:

“Here, then, is eternal life – to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be gods yourselves…the same as all gods have done before you” (Journal of Discourses, Vo.6. p.4 1844)

Mormon temples have their pattern in the Bible, but it is not after the pattern of heaven but of Ur of the Chaldees. 182 modern Ziggurats designed that man may make a name for himself, learn to be a god and exercise dominion.

]]>http://reachouttrust.org/mormons-restore-biblical-temples/feed/0The Mormon Godhead and ‘Modern Revelation’http://reachouttrust.org/mormon-godhead-modern-revelation/
http://reachouttrust.org/mormon-godhead-modern-revelation/#respondTue, 14 Feb 2017 11:53:26 +0000http://reachouttrust.org/?p=3486Mormonism is a ‘restorationist’ religion with its own peculiar dispensationalist model. It is, therefore, in the nature of Mormon thinking to consider the ‘modern revelation’ of their latter-day prophets as most relevant to our day and age, giving insights for the latest dispensation. From the Bible Code to the Davinci Code, from James Frazer to […]

Mormonism is a ‘restorationist’ religion with its own peculiar dispensationalist model. It is, therefore, in the nature of Mormon thinking to consider the ‘modern revelation’ of their latter-day prophets as most relevant to our day and age, giving insights for the latest dispensation.

From the Bible Code to the Davinci Code, from James Frazer to Von Daniken and Colin Wilson, there is a perennial market for ‘lost truths’ and hidden histories. It is what attracts people to secret societies, to become initiates, submitting themselves to strange ceremonies, adopting odd customs and practices, spending fortunes on obscure books in the hope of gaining a glimpse into the mysteries of the universe.

The January 2017 Ensign magazine carried an article by Norman W Gardner, curriculum writer for the LDS seminaries and institutes department, offering such Insights from the Doctrine and Covenants about the Father and the Son. He claims, “This book of revelations reveals lost truths about the Godhead and how we can live with the Savior and Heavenly Father again.”

‘Modern revelation,’ offering such insights, is a touchstone of Mormonism, and Gardner brings six points to demonstrate how he thinks the Doctrine and Covenants deepens our understanding and proves superior.

1. “In the Doctrine and Covenants we can hear the voice of Jesus Christ,” he insists, stating, “The Doctrine and Covenants is not ancient scripture but contains revelations given to Joseph Smith and his successors in our modern world.”

This plays to the Mormon idea that the Christian Church has been running on an outdated, corrupt operating system. The ‘Restoration’ of lost truths and living prophets is the essential system upgrade we need. ‘Oh, that old thing,’ you can almost hear them say, as you bring out your Bible. This betrays an equivocal attitude towards the Bible, which is the only book of Scripture Mormons consider as not especially inspired or trustworthy according to the Mormon eighth article of faith:

“We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.”

But there is nothing dated about the Word of God, who is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb.13:8). If it was so then the Book of Mormon would be redundant, being at least 1600 years old according to Mormon claims. Indeed the Doctrine and Covenants itself is proving increasingly dated since, of Joseph Smith’s successors, it contains one entry by Brigham Young (1847) and one by Joseph F Smith (1918). Finally it has proved to be as closed a canon as the Bible.

More importantly, none of Mormonism’s additional scriptures contains a single gospel. Gardner claims:

“The first-person voice of the Lord Jesus Christ is recorded more frequently in the Doctrine and Covenants than in the New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Pearl of Great Price combined.”

Surely it is content and not a word count that determines value and authenticity? Depending on Mormon scriptures alone, what do we learn about Jesus? Only what one man, Joseph Smith, tells us, and that is as much debated inside Mormonism as outside (just try having an intelligent conversation with a Mormon about the King Follett Discourse).

The Bible gives us four gospels and a substantial account of the early church, what they believed and practised, and how they lived. It gives us prophecies describing his coming, and accounts of the fulfilment of those prophecies. The mystery and will of God is revealed there (Ephesians 1:9-10). The question is not what does Mormon revelation tell us that we didn’t know before. Rather, it is what, in the claims of Mormonism, squares with the ample knowledge we already have.

2.The Doctrine and Covenants contains accounts of those who saw God

Gardner claims, “As a result of the First Vision in 1820, the boy Joseph Smith gained firsthand (sic) knowledge of the existence of the Father and the Son. The Doctrine and Covenants records additional instances when the Prophet and others saw the Father and the Son in visions or personal appearances. These accounts serve as modern witnesses for us that They live and that They directed the Restoration of the gospel.”

The Doctrine and Covenants is the work of one man, Joseph Smith. He is the single thread running through this article. What Mormons ‘know’ they know through him. His visions, his revelations, his ‘scriptures’, which can prove surprisingly convenient when he is in a tight spot; witness Doctrine and Covenants 132, with its command to Smith’s wife to accept plural marriage, or else (vv51-56).

The New Testament, on the other hand, offers countless witness accounts of the risen Christ, from the women who first discovered the empty tomb, through his appearances to the twelve and others, to his appearance to Saul of Tarsus (John 20; Luke 24; 1 Cor.15:1-7) Joseph Smith has simply tried to introduce himself into this vast crowd of witnesses we already have.

3. The Doctrine and Covenants helps us learn about God the Father

Here is where Mormonism departs dramatically from what the Bible tells us. Indeed, the Doctrine and Covenants contradicts Mormon teaching, the article insisting ‘God the Father is infinite and unchangeable,’ (D&C 20:12, 17-18). Yet Joseph Smith, in the above mentioned King Follett Discourse, taught that ‘God became God.’

Rather than ‘restoring lost truths,’ Mormonism brings truth claims that were never there in the first place, that contradict what has always been known. ‘The Father and the Son,’ claims Gardner, ‘have tangible bodies of flesh and bones.’ (D&C 138:3-4) This fits with Smith’s now fully developed teaching that ‘As man is God once was, and as God is man may become.’ (Lorenzo Snow, 5th Mormon prophet) The Mormon missionary lessons today teach:

‘God has a perfect, glorified, immortal body of flesh and bones. To become like God and return to his presence, we too must have a perfect, immortal body of flesh and bones.’ (Preach my Gospel, 2004, p.50) Note God’s body is ‘glorified,’ i.e. is not simply glorious but, in Mormon thinking, has gone through a process of becoming glorious, the process described in the missionary lessons. (In fact, ‘glorified’ means to ascribe glory ‘to a markedly exaggerated extent; to add undeserved prestige to, esp under a euphemistic or overblown title.’ (Chambers Dictionary)

Jesus defined eternal life as to ‘know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.’ (John 17:3). God himself declared, ‘I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God…You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.’ (Isaiah 44:6-8) The writer to the Hebrews tells us, ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.’ (Hebrews 13:8)

James reminds us, ‘Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.’ (James 1:17) God is not the unmoved mover of Greek philosophy, but he is unchangeable in his person, character, purpose and power, the uncreated creator.

4. The Doctrine and Covenants helps us learn about Jesus Christ

Here Gardner writes, ‘Jesus Christ was the Firstborn of all the spirit children of Heavenly Father. In the premortal life, Jesus obtained all knowledge and power and represented the Father as the Creator of the worlds. Through His divine power, the Lord Jesus Christ is the source of light and life for all of His creations. The Doctrine and Covenants clarifies many of His roles in the Father’s plan.’

This is a reference to the doctrine that we lived with God in eternity before coming to earth, in a ‘pre-mortal existence.’ They assert that God did not create out of nothing, we already pre-existed and God placed us in a world he made out of pre-existing matter.

This is a form of dualism in which God and the material of the universe eternally coexist. This would mean that there were two ultimate forces in the universe, God and matter, that something existed apart from God of whom Scripture declares, “In him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible…” (Col.1:16) “For you created all things, and by your will they existed” (Rev.4:11).

How could God be omnipotent if something existed apart from his will? This challenges his Lordship over creation, his ultimate will for creation, and his glory in creation. How could we know that God, and not another eternal force, is ultimately in control? But this is exactly what Mormonism presents us with, i.e. a ‘Plan of Salvation’ to which even God is subject, by which he became God. The Bible clearly shows in many places that God created everything out of nothing and that nothing in creation pre-existed, or was fashioned from pre-existing materials.

‘For in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities – all things were created through him and for him’ (Col.1:16, c.f. Ge.1:1; Ps.33:6,9; John 1:3; Acts 17:24; Heb.11:3; Rev.4:11) Further, the one in whom, through whom, and for whom all things were created is Jesus Christ. The idea that ‘Jesus obtained all knowledge and power and represented the Father as the Creator of the worlds,’ cannot be right, since he is the unchangeable God who is ‘the same yesterday and today and forever.’ (Hebrews 13:8) not the first of God’s children to ‘progress.’

5. The Doctrine and Covenants helps us learn what the Father and the Son expect of us

Here Gardner asserts, ‘More than any other book of scripture, the Doctrine and Covenants makes it plain what eternal life is: to return to live with the Father and the Son, receive all that the Father has, and become like Them. It also tells us how Jesus Christ, through His Atonement, makes this possible and what we need to do to fulfill the requirements He has set. In addition, we learn in the Doctrine and Covenants what it means to follow Jesus Christ’s example, since, like us, Jesus Christ did not have a fulness at first but received grace for grace until He had all power and glory.’

It is worth repeating that Jesus, according to the Bible, is ‘the same yesterday and today and forever’ (Hebrews 13:8) He always had a fullness. Paul reminds us that ‘Christ Jesus who, being very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.’ (Philippians 2:6-7)

In his great high priestly prayer in John 17 Jesus prayed, ‘I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.’ (John 17:4-5)

Jesus was God in nature, did not cling to his Godhood but made himself nothing, finished the work the Father gave him, and returned to receive the glory he originally had. This is not progressing, ‘receiving grace for grace,’ but glory fully known, glory laid aside, and glory taken up again.

The Doctrine and Covenants, writes Gardner, ‘also tells us how Jesus Christ, through His Atonement, makes this possible [returning to God] and what we need to do to fulfill the requirements He has set.’ This reflects the peculiar Mormon idea that we earn the gift of salvation, expressed most clearly in their 3rd Article of Faith: ‘We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel.’ (emphasis added)

Gospel means good news. It derives from the Anglo-Saxon godspell, and translates the Greek euangelion, ‘good tidings.’ The ‘good news’ of Mormonism is the opportunity of being ‘saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel.’ It is to ‘fulfil the requirements [Jesus] has set.’ This is a troubling definition of ‘good tidings.’

Every honest man and woman would confess with Paul, ‘I have the desire to do good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing.’ They would surely go on to cry, with Paul, ‘Who will deliver me from this body of sin?’ The Bible makes clear the good news is the message of the cross and resurrection, and is described as, ‘the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes…’ (Romans 1:16) Christ will deliver us from this body of sin, through his atoning work on the cross and by the power that raised him from the dead

6. The Doctrine and Covenants provides a pattern for acquiring spiritual knowledge

Here Gardner writes, “Light and truth are promised to those who live according to all of the Lord’s words. It is important to learn details about the nature of the Godhead and Their purposes. This knowledge can lead to diligent searching for spiritual understanding and conviction of the truth.”

The emphasis throughout is on knowledge. What form does this knowledge take? He cites D&C 76:

“For thus saith the Lord—I, the Lord, am merciful and gracious unto those who fear me, and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end. Great shall be their reward and eternal shall be their glory.

And to them I will reveal all mysteries, yea, all hidden mysteries of my kingdom from days of old, and for ages to come, will I make known unto them the good pleasure of my will concerning all things pertaining to my kingdom.

Yea, even the wonders of eternity shall they know, and things to come will I show them, even the things of many generations. And their wisdom shall be great, and their understanding reach to heaven; and before them the wisdom of the wise shall perish, and the understanding of the prudent shall come to naught.

For by my Spirit will I enlighten them, and by my power will I make known unto them the secrets of my will-yea, even those things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor yet entered into the heart of man.” (D&C 76:5-10)

Later, Mormons are encouraged, “And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.” (D&C 88:118)

Here is the stark difference between biblical knowledge, which is knowledge of God and his purposes and available to anyone who picks up a Bible, and Mormon knowledge:

“And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfilment-to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.“ (Ephesians 1:9-10)

Here it is Christ, under whose head all things are brought together, who is glorified.

In Mormonism, knowledge is esoteric, gained by initiation into the secrets of God through stages of growth and faithfulness that include initiation in secret temple ceremonies based on masonic ritual. This knowledge is not knowledge of God but the passing on of knowledge from God to the next generation of glorified, exalted beings – men become gods. This knowledge is a revelation of all mysteries, the wonders of eternity, wisdom that reaches to heaven. This is reminiscent of the great ziggurats of the plains in Abraham’s time, man reaching for godhood. This issues in the glorification of man. Wasn’t the lie in the beginning, ‘You shall be like God?’ (Genesis 3:4-5)

Conclusion

In the Bible we can hear the voice of Jesus. The Bible contains accounts of those who saw God. It helps us learn about God the Father and about Jesus. The Bible helps us understand what God has done for us in Christ, and contains all his wonderful promises for those who love and trust him. ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.’ (2 Tim.3:15-17)

All we need for life and godliness is available through our knowledge of God who has called us ‘by his own glory and goodness’ (2 Peter 1:3) and not through esoteric knowledge that exalts man. Peter goes on to say, ‘We have something more sure (than cleverly devised myths [v16], the prophetic word, to which you would do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place…’ (vv 19-20). The very lamp Peter writes of is dismissed by Mormons as ancient and increasingly irrelevant. Peter goes on to warn:

‘But false prophets also arose among the people (of OT times), just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow in their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words.’ (2 Peter 2:1-3 ESV)

Gardner concludes, claiming that ‘the Doctrine and Covenants helps us draw nearer to Heavenly Father and His Only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, by revealing Their character and Their purposes.’ Yet nothing carries us further from God’s purposes in Christ than a faith that makes Christ simply the eldest brother of all mankind, that makes God nothing more than an exalted and ‘glorified’ man, and that makes man a potential god. All that Gardner claims for the Doctrine and Covenants is already there in the prophetic word of the Bible, correctly taught, and worlds away from the Plan of Salvation of Mormonism.